Infection and Drug Resistance | Volume 15 - Dove Press Open ...
How, Where And When To Get Updated Covid Booster Shots
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Thursday that teenagers and adults get updated booster shots from Pfizer or Moderna. The shots — also known as bivalent vaccines —are designed to target both the original coronavirus strain and the currently circulating omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
The decision follows a similar recommendation from a panel of independent advisers to the CDC, which voted in favor of the shots Thursday.
The CDC's recommendation means the shots can now be administered to the public. But a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services said people likely won't start getting updated boosters until after Labor Day.
After that, appointment availability is expected to ramp up over several days, with appointments becoming more broadly available in a few weeks, a senior administration official said. People will be able to search for the closest sites offering updated boosters at Vaccines.Gov.
Here's what to know about the updated shots.
Are there enough doses for everyone?White House officials said vaccine supply should meet demand this fall. The administration has purchased 171 million updated booster doses — 105 million from Pfizer and 66 million from Moderna — thus far, with the option to procure up to 429 million more.
Distribution of the doses began after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the shots Wednesday, with shipments to tens of thousands of locations, including pharmacies. Before that, pharmacies, community health centers and rural health clinics could pre-order the shots from the federal government.
A CVS spokesperson said its pharmacies expect to get updated booster doses on a rolling basis over the next few days. People can make appointments as usual on CVS' website or its app.
Walgreens similarly said people can make appointments to get updated boosters through its website or its app or over the phone.
For now, the shots remain free.
How are these boosters different?Whereas the initial Covid vaccine boosters targeted only the original strain of the coronavirus, the updated boosters are designed to add protection against omicron subvariants. For that reason, the modified shots will be the only boosters available for teens and adults moving forward.
The newly authorized shots target the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. As of Tuesday, BA.5 accounted for at least 87% of new U.S. Cases. BA.4 and a similar sublineage, BA.4.6, made up around 11%.
"The updated Covid-19 boosters are formulated to better protect against the most recently circulating Covid-19 variant. They can help restore protection that has waned since previous vaccination and were designed to provide broader protection against newer variants," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement on Thursday.
Pfizer's and Moderna's trials of their bivalent vaccines in people studied a formulation that targeted the original omicron strain. The updated version, however, was tested in laboratory studies, which found that the boosters generated strong antibody responses against BA.4 and BA.5.
Laboratory tests "so far have been a very good predictor of how well the vaccines protect against infection, as well as protecting against severe disease and hospitalization and death," said David Montefiori, a professor at the Human Vaccine Institute at Duke University Medical Center.
Read more about updated Covid boosters Who should get a booster?The FDA authorized Pfizer's shot for people ages 12 and up and Moderna's for ages 18 and up. For those who are up to date on their Covid vaccinations, the updated booster constitutes a fourth, fifth, or sixth shot, depending on one's age and health status.
But some vaccine experts wonder whether the shots are necessary yet for young, healthy people, given the lack of clinical trial data to demonstrate how well they work against the newer omicron subvariants.
Nonetheless, Pablo Penaloza-MacMaster, an assistant professor of microbiology-immunology at Northwestern University, said the potential benefits seem to outweigh the risks.
"The way that I look at it right now is that it seems like there's not much to lose," he said.
When is the ideal timing for this booster?The CDC suggests that people wait at least two months since their most recent Covid shots to get the latest shots.
People who are elderly or immunocompromised should get boosted as soon as they meet those qualifications, Montefiori said. But he suggested that there's likely to be more wiggle room in the timing for young, healthy people.
"The longer you wait to get the boost, the more potent of a boosting effect it's going to have," he said. But for those who hold off, he added, "there's that trade-off between waiting to get boosted so that you have a stronger boosting effect and the risk of getting infected while you're waiting to get the boost."
Montefiori, who is 68, said he got his fifth shot three weeks ago and plans to wait three months for his bivalent booster.
The CDC advises that people who recently had Covid consider delaying their boosters until three months after their symptoms started or, if they were asymptomatic, since their positive Covid tests.
Penaloza-MacMaster said his research suggests that healthy people of all ages could even wait six months between shots or following Covid infections.
But Montefiori said it's hard to know how long immune protection lasts after a Covid infection.
"The best advice that I would give people is to get the bivalent boost as soon as they're eligible to, regardless of whether or not they've been infected, because of the uncertain nature of how much that infection really boosted your immunity," he said.
Aria BendixHow To Get A COVID-19 Vaccine Appointment In NYC
Searching for a coronavirus vaccine appointment in the Big Apple can feel like the pandemic equivalent of trying to book a table at Rao's — everybody wants in, but you may as well fuhgeddaboudit.
Those who are eligible for a coveted dose have to wade through a series of notoriously clunky websites — with no coordination between city, state and private sites or systems — searching for elusive appointments that get snatched up as quickly as they become available.
"It's a totally disjointed and confusing process to get an appointment. It requires checking many different websites and generally people who are not tech savvy or don't have hours of free time are just not able to navigate their way through the process," Councilman Mark Levine, the chair of the council's Committee on Health and a frequent critic on the vaccine rollout, told The Post.
S. Mitra Kalita, the publisher of Epicenter-NYC — a newsletter that now has a network of volunteers who are scheduling appointments for the public — says the confounding system is particularly "a deterrent" for people who aren't digitally savvy or don't have the time to check multiple websites.
Those who are eligible for a COVID-19 dose have to wade through a series of notoriously clunky websites for elusive appointments that get snatched up quickly.Matthew McDermott There's also a "disconnect" between the times of day appointments are available and the limited schedules of many essential workers, she noted.
"If you're an essential worker who has one day off and a limited window, and we're not even talking about transportation and the hopscotch going around across the boroughs, suddenly the window for what you can do is limited," Kalita said.
But unlike Rao's, securing a vaccine booking isn't impossible — and millions of doses have already been administered across the five boroughs.
Here's a guide to navigating the various options, including the best and worst sign-up systems as well as tips for snagging that spot once you're there.
All New Yorkers are expected to be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine by the summer. REUTERS First, find out if you're eligible As of March 30, a select group of essential workers, New Yorkers with pre-existing conditions and those age 30 and over will be eligible for the vaccine.
All New Yorkers 16 and over will be eligible to sign up for and receive the vaccine starting April 6.
To find out if you are eligible for the jab, head to the state's "Am I Eligible" website and input the required information. The portal will ask about age, essential worker status and any conditions that can lead to a compromised immune system. Residents can also call 1-833-NYS-4-VAX to find out if they are eligible, check the city's website or refer to the below list:
Because the city and state systems are so confounding, ad hoc networks of good Samaritans have created their own online portals and programs to connect New Yorkers with appointments.
Here are some of the places to start before you even trying to navigate the booking sites directly:
Epicenter-NYCEpicenter-NYC started as a newsletter for Jackson Heights, Queens during the height of the pandemic, and now is a hub for a team of volunteers who find appointments for people and then sign them up.
"We felt like the greatest service we could provide is helping people navigate this Byzantine system of securing a vaccine appointment and it was very much by word of mouth," Kalita, the newsletter's publisher, told The Post.
Its volunteers have figured out ways to "game" the system and readily find appointments for those in need — but even then it often takes multiple helpers searching for just one person, she said.
People can sign up to get an appointment scheduled for them by filling out Epicenter-NYC's form.
The federal government recently rolled out its own map-based tool for finding shots across the country called VaccineFinder.Dennis A. Clark NYC Vaccine List NYC Vaccine List searches over 700 vaccine sites across the city and lists appointments as they become available in real-time, in one place.
Although users ultimately still have to grapple with the various inoculation locations' sign-up systems, it cuts out the hard part of finding which have open slots at the right time.
Dan Benamy, a Brooklyn software developer, created the website with a team of volunteers after signing up his grandparents for vaccines and realizing how difficult it was.
"The appointments get booked but more come online everyday and throughout the day," Benamy told The Post of his page.
"We do hear a lot from people who keep an eye on the site and refresh it and are regularly able to find appointments, so I know it can be frustrating going on there and not finding something right away, but folks need a little morale boost. Keep at it, they will find appointments."
Users can toggle between locations and whether or not the site has appointments for second doses. People under the age of 50, or residents who aren't teachers or don't have an underlying condition, can also filter out pharmacy appointments, which currently only give jabs to those groups. There is also a map tool that shows availability close to home.
TurboVaxTurboVax uses a similar process to scour for appointments at over 400 city and state sites in the Big Apple. It also announces appointments as they become available on its Twitter feed.
Software engineer Huge Ma created the service in two weekends for $50 after trying to sign his mom up for a shot — and says he has helped tens of thousands of people score slots since, according to The Guardian.
VaccineFinderThe federal government also has its own map-based tool for finding shots across the country called VaccineFinder.
Eventually the service is supposed to show all vaccine locations, but right now that functionality only exists in a handful of states — and New York is not one of them,.
Currently, it only points to federal vaccine locations in the Empire State, which largely means pharmacies. But it's a good way to see which independent drug store are offering jabs, and also shows which outlets have doses in stock. You can also search for one specific type of vaccine, like just Pfizer or just Johnson & Johnson.
VaccineFinder is a good way to see which independent drug store are offering jabs.Dennis A Clark How to book a COVID vaccine appointment in NYC online Through the City of New York New York City's Vaccine Finder displays both city- and privately-run locations like pharmacies and local clinics on a map — though users still need to click out to the various sign-up pages for each site.
Be prepared to sit around and press refresh over and over again if you're picky about your location and time slot.
And to sign up at one of the city-run locations, you'll need to go through the rigamarole of entering all your personal information each time you try to score an available appointment.
"For a lay person, you have to input your information, it'll say no appointments available and you have to refresh and then you have to input your information all over again," said Kalita.
"You're filling out more than a dozen pieces of information only to be told over and over there's no appointments available… if you input that information all over again, only to be thwarted every time, at some point you'll say it's impossible to get a vaccine."
The vaccine finder also doesn't allow residents to filter out what type of appointments they need, so the options are flooded with pharmacy slots — which aren't eligible to all — and sites that only offer specifically first or second doses.
George Hagstrom, a volunteer with Epicenter-NYC, said new appointments tend to drop on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon for the city-run vaccine hubs. For the city's Health and Hospital sites, they often come just after midnight.
The state's online COVID system is only for its handful of locations.REUTERS Through the New York State website The state's online system is only for its handful of locations — which include hubs at the Javits Center in Manhattan and Aqueduct racetrack in Queens — but is more streamlined and integrated than the city's.
To sign up for a vaccine appointment, start with the Am I Eligible page. Once it has established that you are eligible, a list of available sites, and their distance from your zip code, will pop up and you can click through to see open appointments.
A volunteer from the "Covid Vaccine Help" Facebook page wrote Monday that new appointments appear to be loaded every six minutes, starting at two minutes past the beginning of each hour.
"To be clear the times are: :02 :08 :14 :20 :26 :32 :38 :44: :50 :56," the post reads.
":02 and :32 are the most consistent. It's not the second the [minute] hits but 15-30 secs after."
Sarah Kulkarni, a volunteer with Epicenter-NYC, has found refreshing the state's page over and over until a slot shows up to be the most effective method, but advised to "quickly scroll past" the first appointments that appear, as they are "always snagged by bots" — computer scripts people have written to automatically reserve slots.
"Book first and figure out if it works later. You can always cancel if it's truly a conflict," Kulkarni wrote in a blog post.
Though a big chain pharmacySeveral pharmacy chains are currently offering the vaccine to people aged 50 and up, teachers and childcare workers and those with pre-existing health conditions.
For Walgreens and Duane Reade, residents need to first create an account, then go through a brief eligibility questionnaire.
While the interface itself is quite smooth, many users have recently complained online about hitting a roadblock because the site requires them to book their first- and second-dose appointments at the same time — but no second-dose slots have been available.
For Rite Aid, start with its vaccine scheduler. The eligibility screening is simple enough, but finding appointments is more cumbersome. Unlike Walgreens — which shows you all available slots in your area on one page — you will be asked to put in a zip or neighborhood, and then shown a list of local stores. You must then click into each one to see if appointments are available, repeating the process store by store
CVS is currently offering coronavirus vaccines at select stores in New York City, Long Island and upstate.
To get a shot there, create an account first to ensure you're eligible, then book an appointment. New slots seem to appear around 6 a.M. And midnight, according to volunteers who book appointments for others.
How to book an appointment by phoneFor those who'd rather not sit in front of a computer refreshing a screen all day, the city and state each have COVID-19 vaccine hotlines where you can set up appointments at sites they control.
The state operates over 25 facilities from the Big Apple to North Country, including the Javits Center in Manhattan, Jones Beach, SUNY Albany and the state fairgrounds in Syracuse. Residents need to call 1-833-NYS-4-VAX to set up an appointment.
The city also operates dozens of sites across the five boroughs. To make an appointment by phone, residents can call 1-877-VAX-4-NYC.
For the vaccine site at the Fort Washington Armory in Washington Heights specifically, appointments can be made by phone at 646-838-0319, where bilingual operators are available. The majority of slots at the site are reserved for specific zip codes in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx.
New Yorkers who are eligible to be vaccinated at a pharmacy may be able to call their local stores to make an appointment.
Other tips and tricks for finding a COVID vaccine in NYCMaya, an Upper West Sider who goes by the moniker "The Appointment Whisperer" and didn't want to share her last name, set up alerts on Twitter pages run by bots that post available appointments so she can help others sign up.
"Basically as soon as the alert pops up, I click on it, that's it, I don't wait, if it comes I'm immediately clicking on it," she advised.
People can reach out to Maya for appointment help in the five boroughs by emailing AppointmentWhisperer@gmail.Com.
"It feels like decades worth of training with Ticketmaster concert ticket sales, I finally have a skillset that I can put it to good use with," she quipped.
She said she was able to help a restaurant worker, and his father who's battling cancer, set up an appointment by waiting for a Twitter alert.
"His phone is in his pocket and he's serving people and he's not going to see it right away and even if he sees it three minutes later, everything's gone," the appointment expert explained.
"After I got all of this details, I was able to book them."
Here are a few more tips:
Appointments 'filling Up Fast' For Booster
Nearly 600 people have already signed up to receive their COVID-19 booster shots this week as Maui Health began offering the additional doses Monday to higher-risk populations. The Maui News / MATTHEW THAYER photo
Since the announcement Friday greenlighting a booster dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for certain populations, nearly 600 residents have signed up to receive their booster this week at Maui Health's vaccine clinic.
Monday was the first day that Maui Health, which operates Maui Memorial Medical Center, began offering the booster Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to eligible residents at the Wailuku hospital.
"Today, our booster dose appointments are completely booked up," spokeswoman Tracy Dallarda said Monday afternoon. "We do have capacity for the remainder of the week, but appointments are filling up fast, so let's encourage people to act quickly."
Maui Health is offering the booster shot to those ages 65 or older, nursing home residents, assisted living residents, those in foster homes and community care homes or individuals 50 to 64 years of age with underlying medical conditions, including cancer, diabetes, asthma, HIV infection, heart disease and obesity.
The state Department of Health on Friday said it continues to put first and second doses of the vaccine over any booster doses, but noted that individuals 65 and older and individuals ages 50 to 64 with underlying medical conditions will be given priority for booster shots.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's strongest recommendations were to provide boosters to these groups, as waning immunity in these populations puts them at highest risk for severe illness, the DOH said.
Other clinics and medical facilities in Maui County are also already giving out boosters. Molokai General Hospital is also giving out boosters, but a spokesman said Monday afternoon that he did not know the interest level and it may take a few days to gauge.
Fifteen of CVS Health/Longs locations in Hawaii have also been administering the boosters since Friday.
At Maui Memorial, Dallarda that the hospital is fielding many questions through its hotline on whether it is safe to receive the booster dose, or any doses of the vaccine and the flu shot at the same time.
"The answer is yes, it is perfectly safe and we encourage eligible residents to get protected from both viruses and receive both vaccines," she said.
However, the flu shot is not available for the general public at Maui Memorial, she acknowledged.
To make an appointment for the booster shot at Maui Memorial, visit vams.Cdc.Gov. For vaccine updates at the hospital, visit mauihealth.Org/covidvaccine.
For vaccination information in Maui County, see mauinui strong.Info.
* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.Com.
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