The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now advising select groups who received the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to get a booster shot.

The extra dose is currently being advised for those who are 65 and older, at risk of severe illness due to underlying conditions or have high exposure on the job.

Doctors say the booster could have a number of benefits.

“The booster shot is there to one, help boost the antibody levels, but also there’s some thought coming out of research in Israel that getting the booster shot helps decrease the transmissibility, so the likelihood that we spread the infection to another person,” says Dr. Sameer Khanijo, a pulmonologist at Northwell Health.

Freeport resident Lanna Duvernay received what she though was going to be a one-and-done shot of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. However, it is now being recommended that those who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine return two months after their initial shot for a booster.

Those who received the Moderna or Pfizer shot and meet the criteria can get a booster six months after their second dose.

Health officials are also saying that people can mix and match vaccines for their booster shot.

“It’s generally recommended that you get the booster that is the original regimen that you got in the first place, but for one way or the other, and there may be different circumstances for people, availability or just different personal choices, you can, as we say, mix and match,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Duvernay is afraid of needles and is not happy, but says she’ll do it.

“For me to get back to work I really need to take the vaccine, be safe and keep everybody around me say,” Duvernay says.