By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Lincoln County is ready to offer booster shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine next Friday if a federal agency and a consortium of western states follow a recommendation it be given to people over 65 and those with long-term health issues.
The shots would be offered at mass vaccination clinics initially in Newport, similar to what the Lincoln County Health Department organized earlier this year, and then as soon as possible in Yachats and Lincoln City.
The county has been planning the clinics for several months in anticipation that federal and state agencies would recommend booster shots to help boost immunity to the virus. If the federal Center for Disease Control and the Western States Scientific Review Work approves the booster as expected this week and early next week, the county is ready to begin at least one clinic 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 1 in Newport.
People will have to make appointments for the booster shot through the LCPH website.
The first approved booster shot is just for the Pfizer vaccine. Federal and state approvals for the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson booster shots are expected within weeks.
Lincoln County Public Health says it has given out 17,876 Pfizer doses and 41,000 Moderna doses – both of which required a two-shot regimen to be fully effective. The overall vaccination rate in the county is nearly 80 percent of people age 12 and older.
But not everyone who got the two doses of the Pfizer vaccine are immediately eligible.
The booster is supposed to be given only to people no earlier than six months after their second dose. If clinics begin Oct. 1, that means the first group of people would be eligible if they got their second dose before March 31.
Based on county records from its clinics in the winter and spring, an estimated 400 people would be eligible the first week, said Susan Trachsel, LCPH spokeswoman, with up to 600 the second week and then ranging from 150 to 300 a week after that.
“We’re planning to do 500 a week in the county,” Trachsel said. “But not everyone is going to want to get it right away.”
The county will also provide booster shots at the mobile clinics that are regularly making the rounds of local communities.
Trachsel said the first clinic to open will be at the Lincoln County fairgrounds in Newport, the site of its large clinics all winter and spring. It will initially run just Fridays.
The county is working with North Lincoln Fire & Rescue to operate a clinic at its station in the Taft neighborhood of Lincoln City. It also plans booster clinics at the Yachats Commons.
“It’s not a big group of people who are over 65 and also got Pfizer,” Trachsel said. “The real push is when they approve Moderna … then we’ll see a lot more people.”
People getting the booster shot will have to show the vaccination card they got when they received their first and second doses. Because nurses will have to write on it, a photo or a copy of the original won’t work, Trachsel said.
She urged people who can’t find their vaccine card to go to the health department’s website and order a new one – which can take up to five days.
The booster shots should also be available at local pharmacies and at Samaritan Health System clinics and providers to eligible people.
Booster same as first two doses
The so-called “booster” shot has the same makeup and strength of the first two doses. It’s being recommended to increase the efficiency of the Pfizer vaccine again the COVID-19 virus, but especially the more virulent delta strain that has been sweeping the country.
Research published last week by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the efficacy of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against hospitalization fell from 91 percent to 77 percent after a four-month period following the second shot. If the efficacy gap continues to widen, it may have implications for the debate on booster shots as federal agencies evaluate the need for a third shot of the Pfizer vaccine for some high-risk groups, including older adults, according to the New York Times.
On Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized a Pfizer coronavirus booster shot for people 65 and older and adults at risk of severe illness, an effort to bolster protection for the most vulnerable Americans against the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus.
In addition to older Americans, boosters should be made available to people 18 through 64 years of age at high risk of severe illness from the coronavirus and those “whose frequent institutional or occupational exposure” to the virus puts them at high risk of serious complications from the disease caused by the virus, the agency said.
The FDA, in issuing the emergency clearance, took an approach similar to what was recommended last week by the agency’s outside panel of vaccine experts. But the agency interpreted the advisory panel’s guidance broadly to cover a larger swath of people.
According to the CDC’s expert review panel, people who are recommended to receive a Pfizer booster are:
- People 65 or older who received their second dose of Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago.
- Residents of long-term care facilities who received their second dose of Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago.
- People 50-64 who have medical conditions that put them at-risk of developing severe COVID-19 disease and received their second dose of Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago.
- People 18 to 49 years old who have underlying health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, and who received their second dose of Pfizer vaccine at least 6 months ago, would also be eligible based on their individual benefits and risks.
Cases numbers still high, but slowing
Although the number of COVID-19 cases in Lincoln County are slowing, there have been 474 reported cases so far this month, including 28 new cases Tuesday and nine Wednesday. That’s less than the 789 reported in all of August but significantly higher than any month since the first case in early 2020.
On Wednesday, there were three people in Newport or Lincoln City hospitals, both in intensive care. The number of hospitalizations this month alone is 24, the county said in its daily report, out of a total of 134 since the pandemic began.
The Oregon Health Authority on Wednesdays lists business outbreaks and all school cases for the previous week, ending Sunday. It reported:
- A 12-case outbreak at the George-Pacific mill in Toledo that started Sept. 2;
- Two students at Crestview Heights School reported Sept. 17;
- One student at Waldport Middle School reported Sept. 16;
- Eight students at Newport Middle School reported Sept. 14; and
- Three students at Yaquina View Elementary School reported Sept. 14.
Oregon slowdown as well
In its weekly statewide reported Wednesday, the OHA said there were decreases in daily cases and hospitalizations and an increase in deaths for the week of Sept. 13-19. It reported 11,655 new cases of COVID-19, a 10 percent decrease from the previous week.
There were 579 new COVID-19 hospitalizations, down slightly from 592 the previous week and 148 reported COVID-19 related deaths, up from 120 reported the previous week.
Statewide the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests was 10.5 percent, down from 12 percent the previous week and the lowest level of test positivity in six weeks. The positivity rate in Lincoln County is nearly 13 percent compared with a goal of 5 percent.
