The Updated COVID Vaccine Is Here: 10 Things to Know

Note: Information in this article was accurate at the time of original publication. Because information about COVID-19 changes rapidly, we encourage you to visit the websites of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), World Health Organization (WHO), and your state and local government for the latest information.

There will be better protection against severe disease, hospitalization, and death from COVID-19 in the coming months now that newly updated (2023–2024 formula) COVID vaccines are available. The new shots are expected to keep more people from getting seriously ill with the virus through the winter, when infections and hospitalizations tend to tick upwards. And unlike the spring booster that targeted people ages 60 and older, this updated vaccine for everyone ages 6 months and older.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) approved vaccines by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in mid-September. The updated vaccines target XBB.1.5, a subvariant of Omicron that dominated the United States—and the world—from November 2021 until earlier this year. The CDC said the updated vaccines should also work against currently circulating variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus—many of which descended from, or are related to, the XBB strain. This includes EG.5, the dominant strain in the U.S., and BA.2.86, a new subvariant sparking concern because it has more than 30 mutations to its spike protein.

While COVID-19 has been causing mostly mild illness recently, Yale Medicine infectious diseases specialist Onyema Ogbuagu, MBBCh, reminds people that COVID-19 can still lead to hospitalization and death. “Infections can have long-term consequences,” Dr. Ogbuagu says, adding that even healthy people can develop Long COVID—a condition in which new, continuing, or recurring (and sometimes debilitating) symptoms are present four or more weeks after an initial coronavirus infection.

Below, Yale experts tell you what you need to know about the updated COVID vaccine.