{"id":44624,"date":"2021-09-20T22:13:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-21T04:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-basin-public-health-hopes-for-pfizer-boosters-this-week\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:20:20","slug":"san-juan-basin-public-health-hopes-for-pfizer-boosters-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/san-juan-basin-public-health-hopes-for-pfizer-boosters-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"San Juan Basin Public Health hopes for Pfizer boosters this week"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"A
A subject receives a shot March 16 in the first-stage safety study clinical trial of a potential vaccine by Moderna for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute in Seattle. According to results released on Tuesday, July 14, 2020, early-stage testing showed the first COVID-19 vaccine tested in the U.S. revved up people\u2019s immune systems the way scientists had hoped. The vaccine is made by the National Institutes of Health and Moderna Inc.<\/span>Associated Press file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

San Juan Basin Public Health anticipates it will be able to offer residents age 65 and older, who have received the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, booster shots sometime this week.<\/p>\n

Taking notice of the Food an Drug Administration\u2019s decision last week to approve recommendations of boosters, SJBPH anticipates the state of Colorado and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will approve vaccine boosters later this week.<\/p>\n

The CDC\u2019s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices will meet Wednesday and Thursday to review the FDA\u2019s approval and decide if it will also approve Pfizer boosters for older populations.<\/p>\n

\u201cSJBPH recognizes that the FDA has taken the first step toward authorizing a booster dose to better protect older adults and vulnerable populations,\u201d said Liane Jollon, SJBPH executive director, on Friday. \u201cSJBPH will administer booster doses when we receive full authorization from the CDC and state of Colorado, potentially late next week.\u201d<\/p>\n

SJBPH reminds residents that their vaccines are still effective. While not 100% effective in stopping transmission, they are highly effective in preventing hospitalization and death.<\/p>\n

\u201cFully vaccinated residents are still well protected, especially from hospitalization and death, but the science is showing that a booster dose will provide additional immunity,\u201d Jollon said. \u201cFor people who have yet to receive a single dose of vaccine, the most important thing is that you get the lifesaving vaccine right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a growing number of delta variant hospitalizations in the area, SJBPH said the science suggests the effectiveness of vaccines wane slowly over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do observe breakthrough cases where fully vaccinated people get sick, and these are distributed across all age demographics, but most of our hospitalizations and serious illness since the pandemic began have been with older adults,\u201d said SJBPH spokesman Chandler Griffin. \u201cSo the booster should provide additional protection for the older adults who we know are more likely to have severe illness if they do get sick.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to people 65 and older, the FDA panel unanimously supported authorization of a booster dose of Pfizer for health care workers or others at high risk of occupational COVID-19 exposure.<\/p>\n

Currently, only moderately to severely immunocompromised people ages 12 and older are eligible for a third dose of vaccine. For the immunocompromised, third doses should be administered at least four weeks after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Vaccine recipients are advised to seek the same mRNA vaccine they originally received. If the matching vaccine type is not available, immunocompromised people may receive the alternative mRNA vaccine.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do want immunocompromised people to take advantage of their eligibility for an additional dose,\u201d Griffin said. \u201cSome people have already come forward, but we expect that there may be more immunocompromised people out there, and they should find a clinic or talk with their primary care provider if they have any questions.\u201c<\/p>\n

A third shot for immunocompromised people is not considered a booster, but actually a third dose. Because of their conditions, the CDC and FDA recommend increasing dosage in the immunocompromised.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was determined that they needed a dosage adjustment, in an increase of what they received in order for their immune system to have the appropriate response,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n

Griffin said as soon as SJBPH has authorization from the state and federal government to begin administering boosters, it will do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will announce details to the community and are prepared to start administering the boosters right away,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n

njohnson@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

approval from CDC, state of Colorado<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42772,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,28,668,291],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44624","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-headlines","tag-public-health","tag-vaccines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44624"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44624\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86161,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44624\/revisions\/86161"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42772"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44624"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}