Experts: Just because you’re eligible for a 2nd covid booster doesn’t mean you need it right now – TribLIVE

As covid cases continue to tick upward both locally and across the country, medical experts caution that just because you are eligible for a second booster vaccine does not necessarily mean that you should run out and get it if you’re otherwise healthy.

“I do not believe that every person should be getting a booster covid-19 vaccination at this time,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based physician and infectious disease expert. “I think that boosters have always needed to be targeted to those at high risk for severe disease.”

The Food and Drug Administration in March authorized a second booster shot for people 50 and older who are at least four months past their first booster. But a study out of Israel suggests that the protection from the second booster peaks at four weeks and is nearly gone by eight weeks.

Adalja said those who are eligible for a second booster but otherwise healthy “may benefit from waiting” until an improved vaccine is developed.

Moderna, which developed one of the two-dose vaccines against the virus, is working on a redesign of its vaccine meant to specifically target omicron and its subvariants.

Dr. Donald Yealy, chair of emergency medicine and chief medical officer at UPMC, said it’s important to remember the purpose of a vaccine.

“It’s either to teach your body an immune response … or it’s also there to remind your body about an immune response that has already existed but may not be as strong as it once was,” he said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention itself indicates that some eligible people can wait for now.

Under the heading “if you are eligible, can you wait,” the guidance notes that people can consider waiting if they’ve had covid in the past three months or if they “feel that getting a second booster now would make you not want to get another booster in the future.”

The guidance continues: A second booster may be more important in fall of 2022 or if a new vaccine for a future variant becomes available.”

Dr. Amy Crawford-Faucher, vice chair of Allegheny Health Network’s primary care network, said her advice for some of her patients is simple.

“My older patients, for sure, I said, ‘You know, there’s no real risk medically, let’s do it,’” she said, noting she gives the same advice to her patients who are immunocompromised.

“Those are the no-brainers,” she said.

For otherwise healthy patients, she said, she fears vaccine fatigue, particularly if each shot leaves them down and out for more than a day. She said she worries that if they get a second booster now and then need to get another as fall and winter approach, they’ll not be as willing.

“So I say, what’s really going to be important is for you to get boosted in the fall as we’re heading into flu season and ‘inside season,’” she said. “And if you want to get the (second booster) now, knowing that I’m probably going to ask you to do this again in the fall, then by all means, it’s not going to hurt.”

Yealy said it is a personal judgment.

“If you get it, you still may need another or a new dose,” he said. “We’ll be talking soon about newer vaccines that address different parts of the virus as the virus changes.”

He also cautioned people to think about masking in indoor and otherwise poorly ventilated areas as cases tick upward and Allegheny County moves into the medium category of community transmission.

The state is recording new cases of the virus at levels not seen since mid-February. The latest report shows new cases increased 23% over the previous week’s report.

Thirteen of the state’s 67 counties are considered to have medium covid-19 levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including Allegheny County. Eight counties in the eastern part of the state have high levels. Allegheny County is the only western county that is not in the low-level category.

Around 1,156 people statewide were hospitalized with the virus, amounting to a 27.5% increase over the past week.

The Allegheny County Health Department recorded 3,732 covid cases over the week ending Wednesday. That’s roughly 533 per day, more than three times the number of cases the county was reporter per day one month ago. Seventy-six hospitalizations were reported over the past week as well.

Cases have risen in Westmoreland County as well.

Positivity rates have been climbing, according to Excela Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Carol Fox, but hospitalizations so far have not followed.

“We are definitely seeing more positive cases,” she said.

The rise in cases recently seems to have driven an increase in eligible people seeking a second booster shot.

“It’s been very steady lately,” said Ben Sutton, a pharmacist at Mainline Pharmacy in Murrysville.

He said Fridays are particularly busy, and people have the weekend to deal with any side effects caused by the shot.

“I’ve definitely seen an uptick in vaccines recently, second boosters specifically,” he said.

Among them was 90-year-old Fadra Erikson, who got her second shot Thursday at the pharmacy.

“It’s just the thing to do,” she said. “We get one and wait for a period of time and get the second one. It’s that simple.”

Staff writers Renatta Signorini and Quincey Reese contributed to this report.