OCEAN COUNTY – Residents with moderately to severely compromised immune systems will be welcome to receive booster shots at clinics run by the county.
The doses can only be given at least 28 days after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. The Center for Disease Control advised that there is not enough data yet to determine whether people who got the Johnson and Johnson shot will see any improvement with an additional inoculation.
They are available for people who have:
- Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies,
- Receipt of a solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy,
- Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy),
- Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (such as Di George syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome),
- Advanced or untreated HIV infection, and/or
- Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (~20mgprednisoneor equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor-necrosis (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory.
People should talk to their healthcare provider about their medical condition, and whether getting an additional dose is appropriate for them, the Ocean County Health Department advised.
Those who are interested in getting a booster should bring their current COVID-19 vaccination record card identifying which 2-dose vaccine was administered prior and the dates. They don’t need to prove that they have one of the above conditions.
Vaccination clinics are held at Ocean County College from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Other clinics will be listed at ochd.org.
This comes on the heels of news that the U.S. is rolling out a booster program to all people in September. This has been a controversial move on the world stage, as some medical professionals think there isn’t enough evidence to require more shots for the general population.
The World Health Organization has criticized the U.S. because residents here will be getting their third doses when people in other nations can’t get any.
Numbers of positive tests have increased across the country, particularly in states with low vaccination rates and low mask usage, statistics show.
In Ocean County, there is an increase in daily positive tests, however it is not on the scale that it is in other locations. Because of this, the OCC drive-thru testing site will be open every Wednesday and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon. To register for this test, visit ochd.org. Only the PCR test is available at this time at this location.
For COVID-19 and vaccine questions, call 732-380-5079.
