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Omicron booster and flu shot, how to protect yourself this fall
FOX 5's Beth Galvin talks to CVS Health Pharmacist Audrey Amolegbo about what you need to know about the new omicron booster shot.
ATLANTA - The Centers for Disease Control & Prevention is recommending millions of Americans get an updated COVID-19 booster shot.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been tweaked to target both the original virus and the more contagious Omicron variant.
CVS Health pharmacist Audrey Amolegbe says her team is ready to start giving the new boosters.
"So we do have the bivalent COVID vaccines, which we're referring to as the updated COVID-19 booster, just to help differentiate it," Amolegbe says.
So, who can get the updated booster?
"If you would like Moderna, it's for 18 years and older," Amolegbe says. For Pfizer it's 12 and older, but the only caveat is that it has to be at least 2 months since your last dose."
The omicron boosters are rolling out just as flu shot campaign is kicking off.
"We can vaccinate you with two shots at one time," Amolegbe says. "It's up to the patient. If you only want one, one shot in each arm, or, if you want one arm to be a little sore, we can do both in the same arm for you."
Freeport, N.Y.: Close-up shot of a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine booster shot being administered in person's arm as the Mount Sinai South Nassau Vaxmobile vists Freeport High School, in Freeport, New York on November 30, 2021. (Photo by Steve Pfost/Newsday …
Amolegbe says you can schedule an appointment online, or just come as a walk-in.
"If you're going online to set up an appointment, you can actually put that you want COVID vaccine and the flu vaccine," she says. "So, that when you come in your pharmacist will already have both of them for you."
It takes a couple of weeks for your body to build up immunity against the virus, once you've been boosted. So, she recommends getting your shot soon. So, if we do see another surge in infections this fall or winter, you are going into in protected.
"The most urgent candidates, I would definitely say, are our elderly population or anyone who has those underlying conditions, just since your immune system is already compromised," Amolegbe says.