Health NZ’s latest vaccination advice for health professionals says COVID boosters are no longer needed for most adults aged 30 to 64.
However, those eligible for publicly funded healthcare can still get the vaccine for free every six months.
The Science Media Centre asked experts for their advice to people considering a COVID booster. Feel free to use these comments in your reporting or follow up with the contact details provided.
Associate Professor Helen Petousis-Harris, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland, comments:
What is your advice for people weighing up whether to get a COVID booster?
“Bottom line: For healthy adults under 65, vaccination is still worth doing, but the benefit is now more about reducing long-COVID risk than keeping you out of the hospital.
“For healthy adults under 65, the case for boosting has changed. It is no longer mainly about avoiding the hospital — that risk is already low for most people in this group. The stronger argument now is about reducing your long-COVID risk the next time you get infected, which for most of us is a matter of when rather than if. The evidence suggests that how recently you were vaccinated matters more than how many doses you have had.
“For people aged 65 and over, or with underlying health conditions, the case is clearer and stronger — additional doses are recommended.
“For everyone else, this is a genuine individual decision, and I encourage people to read the evidence rather than follow a blanket rule in either direction.”
What’s the emerging evidence globally on the benefits and risks of repeated boosters?
“The 2024–25 vaccines work, but with important caveats. Protection against hospitalisation and death remains meaningful – around 39% and 64% respectively in the best current study, but protection against infection is modest (around 40–50% at peak) and wanes substantially within four to five months. One study found effectiveness against laboratory-confirmed infection of only 17% after six months.
“Repeated boosters are very safe; no signal of cumulative harm has emerged in any large surveillance system, but there is genuine scientific debate about whether annual boosting in healthy middle-aged adults confers net benefit beyond the robust hybrid immunity most people now carry from vaccination plus prior infection. That question is unsettled and deserves acknowledgement.”
Is there growing consensus in what different public health authorities around the world recommend?
“Strong consensus, significant divergence. Almost every high-income country agrees that older adults and those with underlying health conditions should receive updated boosters regularly; that part is settled. The divergence is for healthy adults under 65. The United States has historically taken the most expansive approach; most other high-income countries have generally taken a narrower, more risk-targeted position.
“In New Zealand, guidance is risk-stratified: additional doses are recommended for higher-risk groups, available to healthy adults over 30 who want them, and the framing has shifted toward individual decision-making rather than universal mandates. That shift is appropriate given the evidence of a modest absolute benefit in lower-risk groups.”
Is funded access to the COVID vaccine likely to change, and is this something experts are concerned about?
“Yes, and yes. COVID vaccination is transitioning from an emergency programme to a routine infrastructure in most high-income countries, including New Zealand. For high-risk groups, funded access is expected to continue to the best of my knowledge. For healthy adults under 65, programmes are becoming more targeted, which is broadly consistent with the evidence.
“The concern is not scientific obsolescence; the vaccines still work. The concern is threefold: that reduced programme visibility erodes uptake even among those who would genuinely benefit; that we lose the supply chain and regulatory readiness needed to respond quickly if a more pathogenic variant emerges; and that equity gaps widen, particularly for Māori and Pacific communities in NZ, who carry higher burdens of conditions that elevate COVID-19 risk and must not be left behind as programmes narrow.”
Conflict of interest statement: “HPH has received research funding from industry for investigator led projects, served on expert advisory boards for industry, WHO, NZ government, and on clinical trial DSMBs. She is co-director of the Global Vaccine Data network who are conducting safety studies on COVID-19 vaccines across over 30 countries.”
For more detail, see Helen’s blog post “COVID Boosters in 2026: Less About Hospitals, More About What Comes After”
Professor Michael Plank, School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Canterbury, comments:
“There has been some confusion between eligibility for Covid-19 vaccines, which has not changed, and clinical immunisation guidelines, which have been updated.
“The immunisation guidelines group people into three risk categories. The highest risk group is people aged 75 and over, aged care residents, and those with a serious medical condition. This group is recommended to get a booster every 6 months.
“The medium risk group is those aged 65-74, Māori or Pasifika aged 50 and over, and people with at least one co-morbidity. This group is recommended to get a booster once a year.
“These groups account for the vast majority of Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths, so clear recommendations for regular boosters for these groups are welcome.
“Uptake of Covid-19 boosters has lagged below that of the annual flu jab. It would be beneficial if everyone who got a flu jab got a Covid-19 booster at the same time.
“Healthy adults aged 30-64 are not recommended to get regular boosters but, importantly, are eligible to receive one every 6 months if they request it. This is a reasonable compromise. Uptake of boosters in this group is very low, and there are downsides to vaccines like mild reactions to the vaccine and the cost and time of travel. We do have to be careful not to recommend vaccines for people unless there is clear evidence that the benefits outweigh the costs, otherwise we risk eroding trust in immunisation programmes more generally.
“On the other hand, vaccines do reduce the risk of infection, of passing the virus on to vulnerable friends and relatives, and the risk of Long Covid. However, for a group where the risks are already low, the relative benefit of additional boosters on top of existing high levels of immunity is probably smaller.
“Individuals can weigh up these benefits and costs and make their own decision about whether and how often to get a booster. Anyone in doubt should talk to their healthcare provider.”
Conflict of interest statement: “No conflicts of interest.”