The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently authorized updated (bivalent) COVID-19 boosters for both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.
A bivalent booster means it will protect against two strains of the COVID-19 virus: the original virus strain and the omicron variants. You’ll sometimes hear this referred to as an “omicron booster.”
Doses are limited, but there’s less urgency to get vaccinated
Like earlier in the pandemic, there are a lot of people wanting to get vaccinated and a limited supply of the updated booster dose. Getting a dose to everyone who wants to be boosted will take time, but we’re committed to making it as easy as possible for our team to be vaccinated.
If you can receive the booster quicker in the community through a pharmacy like CVS or Hy-Vee, feel free to do so.
While it’s still important to receive an updated booster—if eligible—it’s okay to have less urgency this time around. In general, the primary vaccination series and subsequent boosters provide a high level of protection against serious illness. This updated booster helps us to get on a more regular schedule for vaccinations, similar to the annual flu vaccine.
How to receive your booster
If you, your family, or your patients would like to receive a booster through UI Health Care, vaccination appointments can be scheduled through uihc.org/covid-vaccine or through your MyChart account. If you don’t seen any available appointments, please know that additional appointments will be added as more doses become available.
This year’s flu campaign coincides with these updated COVID-19 boosters. All employees and volunteers are strongly encouraged to receive their annual flu vaccination. Although you may be able to receive a flu vaccine at the same time as your booster at other places in the community, we are not at this time offering boosters to our employees through the University Employee Health Clinic due to limited supply.