What to know about the new COVID vaccine approved this week
Registered nurse Sandra Lindsay, a vice president of public health advocacy for Northwell Health, receives the new Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday in New Hyde Park. Credit: Howard Schnapp
The Food and Drug Administration this week approved the new COVID-19 vaccine, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending it for anyone age 6 months and older.
Pharmacies said shipments are already rolling out and the first Pfizer shot was given to a nurse in New Hyde Park on Wednesday.
Here are answers to some common questions about the updated vaccine.
If I'm already vaccinated, why do I need another shot? What if I received boosters?
Your previous vaccinations still provide some protection against severe illness, said Dr. Jessica Justman, an infectious disease specialist and associate professor of medicine at Columbia University. But that protection wanes over time and the updated vaccine will rev up your immune system to allow it to better fight against the COVID-19 variants currently circulating, she said.
An updated vaccine is especially needed for high-risk people, Justman said.
“Somebody who's over 75 and has immunocompromising medical conditions, and hasn't had any vaccine or booster for two years, I'd be very worried,” she said.
Eighty percent of recent COVID-19 hospitalizations in New York have been among those 65 and older, Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a news conference Wednesday.
Hochul said the state would send letters to nursing homes reminding them they are required to offer the vaccine to residents on-site.
I’m young and at low risk of getting severely ill from COVID-19. Why should I get vaccinated? Why should I get my kid vaccinated?
People of any age can get long COVID, which is any long-term lingering symptoms of the illness that in some cases can be debilitating, and “studies show that receiving the vaccine decreases the risk of developing long COVID,” said Dr. Martín Bäcker, associate director of the NYU Langone Hospital — Long Island Vaccine Center.
Although younger people are at significantly lower risk for severe COVID-19, some do get seriously ill, Bäcker said.
The CDC estimates vaccines prevented 476 hospitalizations per million vaccine doses in children 6 months to 4 years old in the summer of 2022, and 414 hospitalizations per million doses for people ages 18 to 49.
Does the vaccine reduce my risk of getting infected?
Yes. Protection against infection is highest in the first three months after vaccination and then diminishes more quickly than protection against severe illness, Bäcker said.
“Even if it is a mild infection, it can lead to missing days from work or school and it can lead to us transmitting it to our loved ones who might be more vulnerable to getting a severe case,” he said.
Where can I get the vaccines?
Pharmacies, doctors’ offices, health centers and other locations will offer it, Suffolk County Health Commissioner Dr. Gregson Pigott said.
The two largest pharmacy chains, CVS and Walgreens, said in emails that shipments are rolling out to pharmacies over the next few days. CVS said most Long Island locations would have it by the end of the day Wednesday.
Northwell Health nurse and vice president of public advocacy Sandra Lindsay, the first American to receive an approved COVID-19 vaccine in 2020, received the nation's first Pfizer-BioNTech updated vaccine Wednesday morning, Pfizer-BioNTech and Northwell said.
Is the vaccine free?
The vaccine is free in-network for people with private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare, with a few exceptions, said Jennifer Kates, a senior vice president at the San Francisco-based health-policy nonprofit KFF.
A federal program will provide some free vaccines to the uninsured and underinsured. More details are expected in the coming days, the CDC says.
Only 1 in 7 Long Islanders received both COVID-19 boosters. How do you convince people to get the new vaccine?
“People are so over COVID, and at this point, it’s going to be difficult to get the public interested,” said Pigott, adding the focus should be getting the most high-risk people vaccinated.
Hochul said the spike in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in recent weeks, although much lower than several previous increases, may persuade some to get vaccinated because “we're not talking about hypotheticals: ‘Oh, this could come back some day. So get ready.’ It has come back.”
I’ve heard about side effects of the vaccine, including myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart muscle. Is the vaccine too risky?
Serious side effects of the shot, such as myocarditis, are rare, Bäcker said. It's significantly more likely you would get myocarditis and other inflammatory conditions from COVID-19 than from the vaccine, he said.
Most post-vaccination myocarditis cases were among adolescent or young adult males, the CDC says. Even among that group, the risk of heart complications was two to eight times higher from a COVID-19 infection than from the vaccine, a 2022 study found.
Bäcker said he will schedule a vaccine for himself and his two sons, ages 8 and 10.
The vaccine was designed to target the XBB.1.5 omicron variant. That variant is no longer dominant. Is it still effective against other variants?
“The updated vaccines should work well against currently circulating variants of COVID-19, including BA.2.86,” according to the CDC.
How long should I wait after a COVID-19 infection to get the shot?
“I have COVID right now,” Justman said Wednesday. “I’m planning to wait at least two months until I get a booster … It’s not really a safety issue as much as you want to get the most benefit from the booster at the point in time when you really need it. And having an episode of COVID does boost your immune system. I’m getting naturally boosted right now. I want to wait to get the booster until my immune response has started to wane.”
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
