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Comment by dougmwne | Hacker News Reader

Dear HN, should I, a man under 40 get a booster shot? How many months after my second dose should I get it?

What are the best resources to answer this question? This information is scary hard to get for someone who wants science, not politics.

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>What are the best resources to answer this question? Your physician. Not hacker news.

Your physician if he reads hacker news

Cute response folks. My physician is also my MIL. She is also not sure if boosters are a good idea. Doctors are not all equipped to keep up on the latest research on a rapidly changing topic. If I ask a doctor outside my family I am not likely to get linked to the latest research and an explanation of its quality.

I am absolutely able to read a study and interpret its results. I read the phase 3 trial results for Moderna and was satisfied that it was excellent evidence for getting the vaccine. I’m not yet aware of any booster studies outside of antibody counts post booster. It would be nice to have an idea of how much my risk of Covid drops and for how long, but I’m not sure if we have evidence collected on that yet.

Your average family physician reads exactly zero published papers per year, and would rely on Googling and reading health authority summary pages or media sources. If the goal is convincing skeptical family members with hard facts, searching the scientific literature oneself is likely much more effective.

as a person asking this question on the internet, i'm going to assume that you are not a scientist, and probably unqualified to make a scientific decision. you might be able to read some scientific-sounding information, but unless you're a professional in the field your odds of coming to a correct conclusion based on information you read is no better than random, and will almost certainly be biased by your politics.

i'll be getting a booster when my local health authorities say i'm eligible for one, because i know i have no relevant expertise that enables me to make a scientific conclusion on this subject. and neither does HN.

Your countries health care service most likely has public guidelines on this which you should consult.

If you have some kind of medical condition and a booster concerns you I advise you make an appointment with your doctor to discuss your specific concerns and get professional advice.

Hacker News is not the place to ask such a question nor give any response other than "check with your local health care service or doctor" imho.

It becomes politics when becoming un-boosted means losing your access to society.

I'm not a medical expert, but my country (Czechia) recommends getting the third dose 6 months after the second.

If you previously received an mRNA vaccine then you might want to consider waiting to get a booster until the Novavax vaccine is approved. It uses different technology and we expect that the combination of two different vaccine types will likely produce a wider spectrum of immunity. But there's little hard data on that so far and you shouldn't take this as medical advice.

https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2107659

> a man under 40 get a booster shot?

Yes; there is minimal disadvantage to doing so, it appears probable that booster shots reduce the chances if getting covid (which, even if not fatal is often quite _unpleasant_), and thus transmitting it, and, while it is very rare for vaccinated under 40s to die of covid, well, no-one wants to be a statistic.

> How many months after my second dose should I get it?

Recommendation normally seems to be 5 or 6 months; some authorities are recommending after 3 months for J&J.

> What are the best resources to answer this question?

Your GP and local health authority.

Bob Wachter who is the chair of the department of medicine at UCSF says get a booster 6 months after either Pfizer or Moderna. If you got the J&J get a booster after 4 months.

https://profiles.ucsf.edu/robert.wachter

I biked over to the employee health center yesterday and got my Moderna booster. Early April and May were when I went for the initial vaccinations.

34 Male, 31.2 BMI

I'm going to Las Vegas after Christmas, don't want anything disrupting the fun.

In the US: 6 months after the 2nd mRNA dose or 2 months after J&J.

>> What are the best resources to answer this question?

….seriously?

Your doctor

Good lord we are in for some bad times

And if you don't trust your doctor to give you good information, then find another doctor. And never go back to the doctor you can't trust again.

You do not live in the Netherlands...

https://www.gezondheidsplein.nl/nieuws/wisselen-van-huisarts...

It's not so much about trusting your doctor. For me, it's more about utter absurdity of the image of every single patient of a GP calling said doctor to ask this question, and thinking that the answer given is going to be any more specific for most of those patients than, say, guidance from the CDC.

Yes, if you have existing medical conditions that your doctor is aware of, they may be in a better position to point out any potential interactions between those conditions, any treatment you already receive, and a booster. But I'm guessing that this isn't a description of most of the population.

I'm also not sure that most doctor's offices really want every single patient calling in to ask "Should I get the booster?", and might simply be unable to deal with such a flood of questions.

There's also the little detail of millions of Americans not actually having "a doctor" in the traditional sense.

For what it's worth, it would never cross my mind to get a doctor's appointment to just ask if I should get a booster. The health care system does not have enough slack for everyone to do that. I'd read official recommendations.

For what it’s worth, every recommendation I can remember hearing or reading advised to consult with your doctor to “see if the vaccine is right for you”

Upon receiving any sort of medical injection, you’re also typically recommended to follow up with your doctor.

For Covid in Europe at least you get the consultation when getting the jab. So I would (and do) check recommendations, reserve a vaccination slot, and talk with the doctor administering the vaccine if I have any questions.

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