The updated COVID-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer are available now at clinics and pharmacies across Connecticut.
“Every year we get the updated influenza vaccine, it's the same thing for the COVID vaccine,” said James Mansi, vice president of medical affairs for the U.S. at Moderna. “Our updated vaccine was developed to be a close match to the variants that are currently circulating and causing the surge in COVID activity at the moment.”
The vaccine was updated against the KP.2 subvariant and all the KP.3 variants that are currently in circulation, Mansi said.
Older adults, people with multiple underlying medical conditions, and those with poor access to health care are at a higher risk, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“The goal of the vaccine is to prevent further complications from COVID itself,” said Dr. Ulysses Wu, infectious diseases specialist at Hartford Hospital. “It will likely protect you, to a certain extent, from getting the infection. And we also know that it will reduce transmission.”
Wu said the vaccine also reduces the chances of developing long COVID after an infection.
The latest updated COVID vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in August for everyone over the age of six months. But Wu said those with risk factors should especially get their shot.
That includes immunocompromised people undergoing chemotherapy, those with cancer or malignancies in their history, older adults, people who may have other risk factors, such as obesity and especially those taking care of people who are at risk of COVID-19 complications.
How towns are countering vaccine hesitancy
To counter misinformation and vaccine hesitancy, the Central Connecticut Health District is developing and promoting accurate vaccine information, said Christine DePierro Gacek, a district epidemiologist.
Health officials in that district, which includes Berlin, Rocky Hill, Newington and Wethersfield, are finding misinformation that is spread in the community regarding vaccines. Officials are then “providing facts on social media, and in public places like libraries, senior centers, town halls, newsletters and reports,” she said.
The towns will offer COVID-19 vaccine clinics at community flu clinics in October, and at the Clinical Health Services location in Rocky Hill in November.
In Fairfield County, several local health departments joined together to launch “Get Vaccinated CT" to promote vaccination and address hesitancy, said Sands Cleary, director of the Fairfield Health Department.
The campaign includes billboards and train platform posters across Darien, Norwalk, Westport, Weston, Easton, Fairfield, Trumbull and Stratford.
While current COVID variants have led to a summer surge in cases, “there has not been any significant changes in severity of disease and the vaccine appears to continue to offer protection and limit severe disease,” Cleary said.
Across Connecticut, 74 people died of COVID-19 in the last three months as of Aug. 24, according to CDC data. Latest August data shows 14 hospitalizations per 100,000 people, down from 16 in July.
