��������

Bill and Rudi Weissinger remain COVID-cautious. They’ve had three shots of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine. They wear masks at the grocery store and avoid large gatherings. When Bill recently offered a friend a fist-bump rather than a handshake, the friend said, “Oh, still?” Yes is the answer, and most of their friends in San Juan Island’s Friday Harbor are similarly vigilant.

The Weissingers want to get another booster shot. They’re in their mid-70s and eligible. But they also plan to travel to France later this year. Boost now? Boost later?

“Our fear is if we get the booster now, it will have faded by then,” Bill says.

“We definitely believe in the boosters. We are not anti-vaxxers. Give me any shot you can,” Rudi says.

Most Americans aren’t trying to time their next booster for an overseas vacation, and many people in low-wage jobs and crowded multigenerational households are far more exposed than the Weissingers are. But their uncertainty about a fourth shot reflects the widespread confusion about boosters — who exactly should get them, and when, and why — that has dogged the government’s vaccination campaign.

Public health officials who authorized a second booster shot last month for people 50 and older and for immunocompromised people 12 and older have insisted it’s a stopgap, aimed primarily at keeping the most vulnerable people out of the hospital or the cemetery. A second booster appears to add to protection against severe illness in people 60 and older but offers only a modest, temporary shield against infection.