Facts don't lie, even when POLITICO is reporting on them:)
A new CDC study has found that the Covid-19 bivalent booster reduces the risk of symptomatic infection from the most common subvariant circulating in the U.S. right now by about half.
[...]
Additional new data, set to be published on the CDC website on Wednesday, also shows that individuals who received an updated vaccine reduced their risk of death by nearly 13 fold, when compared to the unvaccinated, and by two fold when compared to those with at least one monovalent vaccine but no updated booster.
[...]
The new vaccine efficacy study, which used data from the national pharmacy program for Covid testing, found that the bivalent booster provided 48 percent greater protection against symptomatic infection from the XBB and XBB.1.5 subvariants among people who had the booster in the previous two to three months, compared with people who had only previously received two to four monovalent doses.
CDC officials note that the study only represents a "population level" rate of protection, and that levels of individual protection will obviously vary. Further, the study (based on its inherent limitations) does not predict how long such protection will last.
Still worth the trip to Walgreens or CVS.
In spades.