family physician here. we have had coronavirus infections since the dawn of mankind. when i was in medical school pre-pandemic there was really only 5 minutes of relevant material i needed to know: "can cause the common cold." now there are compendiums on the thing. the virulence of what we saw in the pandemic was something else though, there are weird neurologic and thromboembolic complications we're seeing from this too. with that being said, for the large majority of people it still just causes the common cold. i don't reckon it's very good for actually preventing infection, i saw countless patients who were pissed because they still caught covid-19 despite being vaccinated. however in higher risk populations, the vaccine is helpful in preventing worse cases of infection that can lead to hospitalizations. it should do something to help prevent you getting sick though but covid is just one of millions of viruses that will infect you this coming cough-and-cold season. i guarantee everyone in this thread had coronavirus growing up, now we just test for it and freak out when you get it whereas before we just told you to stay home and have chicken soup. if you're in large crowds or travel a lot, it might be helpful to just get vaccinated to you lower your chance of getting just one of those millions of viruses.  anyway, i get the flu shot every year, but after getting the required covid-19 shots for work i don't think i'll get a booster going forward.
United States