Reformulated COVID-19 booster shots will soon be widely available as winter nears and coronavirus cases tick up.
The FDA has greenlighted Pfizer and Moderna booster formulas. Both companies believe their reformulations offer some degree of protection against new coronavirus variants.
Pharmacist Neal Smoller of Village Apothecary in Woodstock says the booster is one of the best protections that we have against severe disease and death from COVID-19.
"It's essential that everyone, especially those in the high risk categories, get up to date with their vaccines as soon as they're eligible," said Smoller. "From an availability standpoint, we're shifting from the government provided vaccines to the private provided direct from the manufacturers or wholesalers and such. So we're going to have a transition period while we get used to these newer arrangements, meaning is my insurance going to cover it? Is it going to be available universally as it was before, and a lot of that remains to be seen, we are really unsure of coverage levels, we know that Medicare has required insurances to cover it, but we don't know to what level and such private insurances will have their own set of rules. And then there's the question of those who were uninsured and those that are uninsured. And the uninsured folks will have some programs available to them through county governments, state governments, and even the CDC."
Dr. Eric Yager of the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences says the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been discontinued, but that shouldn't stop people who received it from getting a new booster.
"The two options are the mRNA through Pfizer and Moderna. And then the protein type through Novavax, which has not received FDA approval, but has emergency use authorization. Remember, way back all the different terminology that kept shifting with the use of the vaccines? In general, I think it's it's important to have the reformulated the new boosters, because they are matching the newer strain of virus, that is the XBB strains that are having that clear match somewhat similar to flu," Yager said. "Because if you have a better match, then individuals are better protected against severe outcomes of infection. It's been seen with the boosters before the reformulation that those individuals that are particularly at risk for severe infection, so individuals that are above the age of 65 that have preexisting health conditions, that it's important that they stay up to date with their vaccinations because it does it does do a very good job at preventing severe outcomes and hospitalizations."
Yager adds the triple threat of COVID, flu and Respiratory Syncytial Virus will be back for another season.
"Fortunately, there's a new RSV vaccine out to protect older individuals from RSV that can be problematic," Yager said. "Individuals that are older and have preexisting health conditions. So I think it gets kind of kind of scary this time. You know, we think about, oh, I need other booster. Cases of COVID are rising, but we have effective vaccines for COVID and RSV and flu, so I just encourage people to stay up to date with vaccines, to stay in touch with their healthcare providers, to make sure that they are up to date. And then with COVID too is just even though there's a kind of fatigue when thinking about COVID being three plus years and but it still is causing hospitalizations and deaths. So it's just maintaining some level of precaution because if you don't feel well is to avoid contact with people that could be at risk for severe outcomes."
Moderna and Pfizer say they don't expect emerging variants to cause a spike in the number of COVID cases.
