The Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Disease Control are recommending that people aged 50 and older could get a second booster immunization against COVID-19, if it has been at least four months since they got their third immunization.

People 65 and older and younger people with high risk factors are especially encouraged to get the fourth shot.

That’s a good idea, but what is an even better idea is for people who are unvaccinated to get their shots, and for those who have not yet gotten their boosters to get their third.

Vaccinations may not be perfect — people can get vaccinated against COVID and still come down with the virus — but it remains the best bet we have against COVID-19. Health officials are continually monitoring the infection rates and hospitalization rates, and they are finding that vaccinations do keep people from getting infected, and from going to the hospital if they do come down with it.

Vaccines do wane in effectiveness over time, so it is a good idea to keep up with the vaccinations. Scientists are also working to tweak the vaccine to combat different variants that come along, so that may be a good reason to keep up in the future.

We are waiting for health officials to reduce the COVID-19 pandemic to endemic status, meaning it is here and it is serious, but it is manageable, just as the influenza virus is here but can be controlled with vaccinations and precautions. We can do the same with COVID. What we can’t do is just wait for the virus to get tired of making us sick and go away. We have to learn to live with it, and getting vaccinations is part of living with the disease.