CDC Director Boosts New Covid Booster

The nation’s top public health official swung by Fair Haven Thursday morning with a vaccine-promoting message: Covid is still with us, and so now is the latest shot designed to protect everyone from an ever-changing virus.

Get the shot, she urged, and don’t worry about paying for it, as the costs should be covered by private insurance and the federal government.

Mandy Cohen, the relatively new director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), delivered that message during a press conference at Fair Haven Community Health Care’s main clinic building at 374 Grand Ave.

Sitting alongside a host of state and federal officials — including U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Gov. Ned Lamont, and state Department of Public Health Commissioner Manisha Juthani — Cohen urged the American public, New Haveners included, to get the new Covid booster shot this fall.

“More than four million [Americans] have already rolled up their sleeves to get the updated Covid vaccine,” she said. ​“We all wish Covid was over, but it’s still here with us.” 

While 97 percent of Americans have either gotten Covid or been vaccinated against Covid, she continued, ​“that protection decreases over time.” And just like with other respiratory viruses, the novel coronavirus that causes Covid-19 ​“continues to change.”

Getting the updated vaccine now ​“allows your body to be in the best” place it can be if you come down with Covid, Cohen said. So, do your part, protect yourself and those around you, and get the shot.

Cohen’s message on Thursday matched the one she articulated in a New York Times opinion essay she wrote in September. That essay reads in part: ​“Some viruses, however, change over time. This coronavirus is one of them. It finds ways to evade our immune systems by constantly evolving. That’s why our vaccines need to be updated to match the changed virus. Even though many Americans have been exposed to previous versions of the virus because they’ve been infected, that protection decreases over time. This is partly why you can get Covid more than once and why you can still get very sick even if you had it before. That’s why the C.D.C. is recommending an updated Covid-19 vaccine, which is better matched to the currently circulating virus, for everyone age 6 months and older.”

Cohen and the other public officials present on Thursday spent much of the half-hour presser fielding questions about cancelled vaccine appointments and supply woes that have led to some frustrations in Connecticut among people who have tried to get the shot so far.

Juthani, DeLauro, and Cohen all stressed that this Covid booster rollout is quite a bit different than previous iterations of the vaccine.

While previous Covid shots were purchased and distributed by the federal government, Cohen said, this time around, the private sector is handling shots. That means that private insurance will be billed and is required to cover the cost of Covid boosters, which are available at pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens and at community health centers like Fair Haven.

All of the officials present stressed that the uninsured and underinsured do not have to pay out of pocket for the new Covid shot. Instead, the CDC’s Bridge Access Program ensures that all people can get the new shot free of charge.

“There is a new process,” Cohen emphasized, that is more dependent on the private sector for Covid vaccine rollout. ​“Supply is improving.” Juthani said that, with each passing day and week this fall, the new Covid vaccine should be easier and easier to get as supply becomes more and more available.

At the end of Thursday morning’s vaccine-focused presser — and before a hardhat-aplenty groundbreaking ceremony for Fair Haven Community Health Care’s clinic expansion right next door at Grand and James — Lamont and DeLauro rolled up their respective sleeves to get two shots apiece from Fair Haven Health nurse Carmen Gonzalez. One shot was the latest Covid booster, the other this season’s flu shot.

“Say hi to Matt Gaetz when you see him,” Lamont said with a smile to DeLauro as he sat in a chair, flanked by reporters, waiting to receive his boosters, alluding to the Florida Republican who kicked off the successful ousting of now-former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. ​“Give him my best regards. Tell him we can’t shut down [the government] here.”