Will I Have to Get the COVID-19 Vaccine Every Year?

Getting the flu shot has become an annual tradition for many of us as a way of getting yearly protection from one of the most common infectious diseases. As new COVID-19 variants continue to emerge and older vaccines offer less protection against infection, many people have been left wondering whether we’ll have to get a new COVID vaccine every year.

What’s more, the US Food and Drug Administration recently approved a new round of updated COVID vaccines, designed to protect against some of the latest variants. This news comes after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed that healthy adults get an annual dosage of the latest COVID-19 vaccine back in 2023.

But what does that mean for future variants? Should we be getting annual COVID vaccines? And how long does immunity last, exactly? Ahead, learn more about the COVID-19 vaccine and how often you should be getting vaccinated.

Experts Featured in This Article:

Amesh A. Adalja, MD, is an infectious disease expert and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

Will I Need a COVID-19 Vaccine Every Year?

The jury’s still out. “It’s unclear what the seasonality of COVID will eventually settle into and what cadence of vaccination will be or whether more durable vaccines will be developed,” says Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “For high-risk individuals, yearly vaccination to prevent severe disease may be the norm in the near term,” he adds.

For now, though, both the FDA and White House have expressed being in favor of annual vaccination. “Barring the emergence of a markedly more infectious variant of SARS-CoV-2, the FDA anticipates that the composition of COVID-19 vaccines will need to be assessed annually, as occurs for seasonal influenza vaccines,” the FDA stated in its recent press release about updated vaccines.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention current vaccine schedule recommends an annual shot for those over the age of 12. Officially, it states that anyone in that age group who was vaccinated before Sept. or Oct. of 2023 should get an updated vaccine. (Younger children may need additional doses, depending on what type of vaccine they previously got.)

How Long Does COVID-19 Immunity Last After Vaccination?

“Immunity against severe disease is durable post vaccination,” Dr. Adalja tells PS. The timeline is about six to 12 months in high-risk individuals, he says. That said, immunity against infection “has been fleeting due to the spike protein mutation rate fostering the evolution of immune-evasive variants.” In other words, immunity against the infection has been getting shorter due to how quickly the spike protein (aka the part of the virus your immune system targets) has changed with each new variant. Because the virus keeps changing and creating new versions of itself, your immune defense is less likely to keep up. That said, even as a vaccine’s efficacy weakens, the shots can still help reduce your chances of getting sick and prevent severe symptoms.

Do the Older COVID-19 Vaccines I Received Provide Protection Against New Variants?

Somewhat. “Existing COVID-19 vaccines are effective at prevention of severe disease, hospitalization, and death,” says Dr. Adalja. The caveat: “The new COVID-19 vaccines are going to be better matched to circulating variants,” he says.

What’s Different About the Updated COVID Vaccines?

The new vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer approved by the FDA are designed to target Omicron variant, KP.2, per the FDA. “The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines have been updated with this formula to more closely target currently circulating variants and provide better protection against serious consequences of COVID-19, including hospitalization and death,” per the FDA press release.

That said, other variants continue to spread and evolve. “The hope is the vaccines are close enough to boost immunity and protect people through the rest of the surprisingly big summer wave and the surge expected this winter,” NPR reports.

Who Should Get the Updated COVID Vaccine?

The CDC is recommending that “everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.” Dr. Adalja emphasizes that it’s particularly important that “all high-risk individuals and those who have never been vaccinated,” receive the vaccine, given their increased risk of severe infection.

The updated shots could become available as early as this weekend. If you have questions about your risk factors and whether or not you should get the annual COVID vaccine, feel free to reach out to your healthcare provider.

—Additional reporting by Maggie Ryan and Sara Youngblood Gregory

Alexis Jones is the senior health and fitness editor at PS. Her passions and areas of expertise include women’s health and fitness, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining PS, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women’s Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.

Maggie Ryan was an assistant editor at PS. A longtime runner and athlete, Maggie has nearly four years of experience covering topics in the wellness space, specializing in fitness, sports, nutrition, and mental health.

Sara Youngblood Gregory was a contributing staff writer for PS Wellness. She covers sex, kink, disability, pleasure, and wellness. Her work has been featured in Vice, HuffPost, Bustle, DAME, The Rumpus, Jezebel, and many others.