Supplies of COVID-19 are gradually becoming available, and many people are wondering who鈥檚 eligible to receive it and when.
Montgomery County, Maryland, which is among the local D.C.-area counties distributing the vaccine, has received 1,100 doses so far between Pfizer and Moderna. Supplies from federal sources are also being聽distributed to many D.C.-region pharmacies and urgent care clinics.
鈥淲e’ve asked for additional quantities; we upped our request from the initial 500 doses a few weeks back. We’re still waiting for those to come in,鈥� said Sean O鈥橠onnell, public health emergency preparedness manager for Montgomery County. 鈥淭hursday is the day in the state that we can place our order for more vaccine. We’re certainly going to ask for a significant amount more.鈥�
O’Donnell said the county expects the demand to be there, based on the utility of this vaccine and the wider groups who can get it.
The new updated boosters are targeted specifically at the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants of the omicron variant, which originated overseas and swept across the nation beginning last November.
鈥淔or the first time, we are making a change in the vaccine to still hold the original strain in there because it does so good against severe COVID. But now there鈥檚 one that’s more precise, so that maybe we will see also a drop in mild to moderate cases, which for many people out there is great,鈥� said Dr. Panagis Galiatsatos, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a physician in pulmonary and critical care medicine.
Who should be getting the updated booster?
Anyone older than 12 is eligible for the bivalent updated booster if it鈥檚 been at least two months since receiving primary or booster vaccinations, or at least two months since having been infected with COVID-19.
There is no bivalent updated booster shot approved for people younger than 12 years old.
鈥淭his vaccine builds on a predisposed immune system to some extent, either from being fully vaccinated and boosted or being fully vaccinated and potentially of having COVID,鈥� Galiatsatos said. 鈥淭his vaccine, the new one, is looking to build off of the immunity we’ve already had.鈥�
As for exactly when it鈥檚 best to get the bivalent updated booster shot?
鈥淔irst things first, talk to your doctor because there are going to be some patients who can get it sooner than later, regardless of the recommendation of the time gap. I鈥檓 thinking of my transplant patients, and so forth,鈥� Galiatsatos said. 鈥淲hat we are recommending, overall, for the general population is two months from your last vaccine for COVID, or your last COVID infection.”
Galiatsatos is among those who surmise that COVID-19 shots will become a yearly routine, similar to receiving a flu shot.
鈥淲e call them annual shots. In reality, they’re probably just more or less boosters,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he flu vaccine鈥檚 technology doesn’t change from year to year. We tweak to make sure it’s effective against the most current variances and what we predict may happen because we’re getting that information from the Southern Hemisphere.鈥�
So while the COVID-19 vaccine鈥檚 newest version is called a booster, for now it鈥檚 aiming at a stationary target.
鈥淚f we’re reading Mother Nature’s tea leaves appropriately, she hasn’t changed the omicron variant over a year. So maybe she’s found a comfortable level with COVID and potentially keeping it around this realm of the omicron mutations,鈥� Galiatsatos said.
Galiatsatos wants people to talk with their doctors and strongly consider getting the new bivalent vaccine.
鈥淢any of you may have had COVID or know someone had COVID and lingered for 10 to 14-plus days, and 10 to 14 days of losing your social engagements and work and so forth; we鈥檙e hoping these vaccines make an impact not only to save lives, but to improve your quality of life.鈥�
