McMahon outlines Onondaga County’s plan for COVID-19 booster shots

The Onondaga County Health Department is still working to determine which offices will participate, he noted. The department will make the information public once it’s known so people will know if their doctor taking part or not.  

“If not, then they can go and save themselves some time and go to other points of distribution,” McMahon said.

Other points of distribution will include area pharmacies, along with a county-sponsored vaccination site in partnership with Kinney Drugs.

“We’ll coordinate large vaccinating capacity either at the [Onondaga County] War Memorial or Oncenter … and we will again do online registration through our website and/or the Kinney [Drugs] site as well,” McMahon said.

The first public clinic could happen late next week, he added.

Onondaga County is also communicating with the state about using Expo Center at the State Fairgrounds, “if it’s necessary.”

“Remember, we’re talking about people who received the Pfizer vaccine only and who likely have received it eight months ago. You’re going to have a more defined population in this process, so it may be that the [Fairgrounds] site is not necessary at this moment in time for the booster shots,” McMahon said.

The county executive also said that if you’re immunocompromised, consult your doctor as you may already be eligible for a third shot.

“Not a booster. A third shot,” he added.

Difference between booster and additional shot

The CDC’s website provided the following explanation to the question, “What’s the difference between a booster dose and an additional dose?”

“Sometimes people who are moderately to severely immunocompromised do not build enough (or any) protection when they first get a vaccination. When this happens, getting another dose of the vaccine can sometimes help them build more protection against the disease. This appears to be the case for some immunocompromised people and COVID-19 vaccines. CDC recommends moderately to severely immunocompromised people consider receiving an additional (third) dose of an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna) at least 28 days after the completion of the initial 2-dose mRNA COVID-19 vaccine series.

In contrast, a ‘booster dose’ refers to another dose of a vaccine that is given to someone who built enough protection after vaccination, but then that protection decreased over time (this is called waning immunity). [The U.S. Department of Health & Human Services] has developed a plan to begin offering COVID-19 booster shots to people this fall. Implementation of the plan is subject to [the U.S. Food & Drug Administration]’s authorization and [the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP)] recommendation,” per the CDC website.