COVID-19 booster vaccination/booster vaccination

COVID-19 vaccines provide effective and sustained protection against severe illness and death from SARS-COV-2, although they cannot be used to safely rule out infection. Nevertheless, the risk of infection with COVID-19 is reduced and thus the risk of transmission to contact persons is also minimized. Unvaccinated persons are thus particularly at risk.

As with most vaccinations, vaccine protection wears off over time, especially in terms of preventing infections without symptoms or with mild courses of disease. Vaccinations are less effective in older or immunocompromised patients due to the limited immune response, which is why vaccination breakthroughs can lead to more severe courses of the disease.

Which vaccine composition?

The WHO regularly updates its recommendations on the composition of COVID-19 vaccines. As the virus is constantly changing and new variants are always circulating, an adjustment is always necessary to ensure adequate protection.
Vaccines against variants JN.1 and KP.2 are currently recommended and available for the 2024/2025 season. Both variants are very similar and closely related. The STIKO therefore recommends the vaccines against the two variants on an equal footing. According to current data, they also provide good protection against the other circulating variants.