CLEVELAND — Most in the medical field strongly encourage the updated COVID-19 vaccine, but your decision may rely on a few other factors, such as a recent infection, your social circle and your own health.
Here is a list of questions you need to ask yourself:
How high is your personal risk?
Do you have a weaker immune system due to age, pregnancy or a health condition such as diabetes or heart disease?
Are you taking medications that make you immunocompromised? This includes anti-rejection drugs for organ transplants, or medications for autoimmune conditions such as Lupus, Multiple Sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis?
If the answer is yes, get the vaccine.
Who's at risk in your social circle?
Do you care for aging parents or an ill relative? Even the youngest among us are vulnerable.
"Particularly infants are unprotected. So children under six months need us to protect around them so that they don't get sick," said Marianne Sumego, MD an internal medicine specialist at Cleveland Clinic.
Are you planning for future events in the next few months, such as a wedding or vacation?
The vaccine gives about three months of protection, but it takes a couple of weeks to build immunity, so plan accordingly.
Did you recently have a COVID infection?
If so, you likely also have about a three-month window of protection, but if it hit you pretty hard, you may consider getting the vaccine since cold and flu season hangs around through April.
There are now three updated COVID vaccines available. The MRNA versions from Pfizer and Moderna and the protein-based Novavax shot is now available for those 12 and up regardless if they've had previous vaccinations.
If you're young, healthy and not a risk to the vulnerable, you may consider skipping it, but remember this advice from Dr. Sumego: "COVID still causes more hospitalizations and deaths than the other respiratory illnesses that circulate. And so we know that we can reduce that and impact that chance of happening with the COVID vaccine, so why wouldn't you want to give yourself a chance of staying out of the hospital?"