Bivalent COVID-19 boosters, which provide protection against both the original strain of the virus and the Omicron variant, currently account for most of the vaccine dose administered statewide. However, since it went on sale in September, only about 45,000 have been available in Mississippi.
People over the age of 12 are eligible for a new booster if at least 2 months have passed since their last dose. All COVID-19 vaccines are free.
Mississippi’s low intake of bivalent boosters is consistent with national trends. That means only about 4% of eligible people in the US are receiving new boosters.
State epidemiologist Dr. Paul Byers said at a state health board meeting Wednesday that the number of cases and hospital and ICU admissions are currently low. But as people spend more time indoors, cases are likely to spike in the winter, and public health experts fear thousands of people will die needlessly.
An analysis by the Commonwealth Fund found that flat vaccination coverage over the fall and winter could kill 75,000 people that boosters could have protected.
Mississippians can make bivalent booster appointments on the Department of Health website. Vaccine appointments are also available on the federal website. vaccine.gov.
You can get the updated booster even if you didn’t get the booster shot before. That is, if he has two doses of Pfizer, Moderna, Nolavax, or one dose of Johnson & Johnson, and he has been two months since his last dose, he is eligible for a new booster. there is. He is also eligible if the booster was given more than 2 months ago.
The latest booster shot was approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about six weeks ago. The State Department of Health announced that bivalent booster appointments are now available at county health departments starting September 13th.
Byers explained that as COVID-19 circulates and evolves, new variants emerge that may evade the immunity conferred by vaccines or previous infections. The new booster offers broader protection than the original vaccine.
The future of COVID-19 vaccines may look a lot like the flu shot, with new versions regularly available to protect against the virus as it evolves.
“It’s the sort of thing that you see with the flu vaccine every year,” Byers said. Because it protects you from viruses.”
So far, the majority of bivalent boosters in Mississippi have been served to people over the age of 50, according to data Byers presented at the conference.
Booster uptake rates have been increasing weekly since early September, but appear to be declining by mid-October.
Only 52% of Mississippians are fully vaccinated, compared to just 67% of Americans, according to the state’s immunization report released on October 1.
But the whole country is like Mississippi when it comes to booster vaccinations. In both the United States and Mississippi, he is only 48% of people who have received at least one booster shot. The US lags behind countries such as the UK, where more than 70% of her adults are vaccinated with boosters.
A poll by the KFF, a health policy nonprofit, found that only half of American adults have heard of the updated vaccinations.
Nearly 1 million people in Mississippi have COVID-19. The virus has killed at least 13,000 people in the state.
