Anniston, AL – On September, 14th, Dr. Raul Magadia, infectious disease specialist and director of the pandemic unit at RMC Anniston, gave a community update on COVID boosters and flu shots.
He explained that a booster shot was recently approved and given EUA or emergency use authorization by both FDA and CDC two weeks ago. It is a two strain booster so it’s effective against two strains, specifically the original or ancestral strain, which was originated in China in 2018. It also is effective against the other variant called Omicron, which they started seeing in December of last year. This new booster is effective against those two strains, the two, which are the two most resilient strains so far, that they have had, and they anticipate Omicron will be circulating throughout the fall season and into the winter months as well. He looked at ADPH website or the Alabama Department of Public Health website this morning and according to them, they anticipate about 70,000 doses for the state of Alabama in the coming days. He asked that for those who are eligible, please do avail yourself of the booster shot.
The EUA is granted based on clinical trials that involve 1800 patients that show that it’s effective against those two states. Part of the trial also check for side effects and pretty much the same side effects like we experienced before. injection site reactions and a bit of headache a little bit of it. A little bit of muscle aches not severe enough to warrant going to their physician or going to the emergency room. So it is considered relatively safe and very effective.
Dr. Magadia then transitioned to discussing flu shots. He stated that the flu season is upon us and asked that all get a flu shot. RMC is planning to do a mass flu vaccination with the staff sometime next month. They are coordinating with the pharmacy, HR, and employee health. He thinks they have a tentative schedule of October 20, maybe October 25, but that’s still tentative, but he stated it will be sometime in the next several weeks or so.
He wanted to leave the with two recommendations: 1. Get the COVID Booster and 2. Get the flu shot. They can both be received in separate arms.He also stressed that in the past two years there have been very rare instances of severe influenza leading to hospitalization. He also said that he knows people are tired of him talking about it, but he had to stress the importance of washing hands, wearing our masks, and keeping distance when you aren’t feeling well. That will decrease the flu damage as well as COVID.
He concluded with that with saying that, “Hopefully we could really go back to what normal was back in 2018 and we could definitely achieve that by vaccination.”
