Published 9/17/2023

CDC Announcement [1]:

• CDC recommends everyone 6 months and older get an updated COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 illness this fall and winter. 
• Vaccination remains the best protection against COVID-19-related hospitalization and death. Vaccination also reduces your chance of suffering the effects of Long COVID.
• The virus that causes COVID-19 is always changing, and protection from COVID-19 vaccines declines over time. Receiving an updated COVID-19 vaccine can restore protection and provide enhanced protection against the variants currently responsible for most infections and hospitalizations in the United States.

Staying Up to Date with Vaccines [2]:

• Everyone aged 6 years and older should get 1 updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to be up to date.
• People who are moderately or severely immunocompromised may get additional doses of updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
• Children aged 6 months–5 years may need multiple doses of COVID-19 vaccine to be up to date, including at least 1 dose of updated Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, depending on the number of doses they’ve previously received and their age. 
• COVID-19 vaccine recommendations will be updated as needed.

Updated (Bivalent) COVID-19 Vaccines
The updated vaccines are called “updated” because they protect against both the original virus that causes COVID-19 and the Omicron variant BA.4 and BA.5. Two COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers, Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, have developed updated COVID-19 vaccines.

When Are You Up to Date? 
Everyone aged 6 years and older
You are up to date when you get 1 updated Pfzer-BioNTech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Children aged 6 months—5 years who got the Pfzer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
You are up to date if you are:

• Aged 6 Months—4 years and you get 3 COVID-19 vaccine doses, including at least 1 updated COVID-19 dose.
• Aged 5 years and you get at least 1 updated COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Children aged 6 months—5 years who got the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine
You are up to date when you get 2 Moderna COVID-19 vaccine doses, including at least 1 updated COVID-19 vaccine dose.

Sources:
[1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2023/p0912-COVID-19-Vaccine.html
[2] https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html