There's a huge back story to all this as usual with a fast-changing pandemic situation and multiple layers of complexity.  I'll try to simplify as best as possible.

The Omicron variant arrived in Shanghai and the local cases were found in a milk tea shop downtown that a returnee from the US visited after quarantine.  This meant a variety of building lockdowns and contact traces of various shopping malls, office buildings, compounds, etc..  Basically someone knew someone who was affected.  Also your health and travel code showed a record if you were from Shanghai.

The real headache was the usual fear-mongering and rumor mills grinding away on social media.  Many teachers were told they're not allowed to leave Shanghai for the winter holiday because the schools don't want to take responsibility if something happens.

For reasons I have no idea about, I decided to get a booster shot anyway.  Despite how it didn't work, I suppose the draw was that expats in Shanghai were not yet authorized for the shot.  It meant a trip to another province which technically wasn't allowed so it meant breaking the rules to get vaccinated.  That's probably why I did it.

Before setting off I wanted to make sure foreigners could actually get a booster in another province so my wife helped call ahead and they confirmed it was possible.   I rode my bicycle to the subway station and then took advantage of the only subway line in China that crosses a provincial border:  line #11.  This is one of the best things going on because you're in another province when exiting but there are no checkpoints to deal with.  

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I then took a taxi to the large exhibition center that was converted into a mass vaccine and covid testing facility.  Evidently hundreds of people had the same idea.  Taxi drivers didn't even have to ask because anyone exiting from the subway station was pretty much going to the exact same place

The queue took over an hour to get in but the whole setup was still very organized and efficient.   I had done my scientific research and knew that this particular booster was the best bet for protection against both catching covid and the government response to being caught positive.  

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The next few days I felt woozy as expected but that was good as a sign of the body working positively with the vaccine.  

Learning from the previous trips, this vaccine is not a magic cocktail that will stop all infections or suddenly open travel doors.  While I'm now one of the few foreigners to have the booster, it is the best action to take at this time.

[Update November 2022]  To my knowledge there wasn't much of a push to get expats boosted within Shanghai later on when it was authorized and few people even bothered.  Those who made the effort to get the booster in other provinces probably made the right call, but none of this stopped the lockdown from happening in April later on.  All I can say is I never tested positive during the lockdown when we were in high-risk areas so there was one benefit of the vaccine at least:  it saved me from getting hauled off to the quarantine camps.