Health experts: Boosters necessary to continue progress in fight against COVID-19

Published 4:35 pm Monday, October 25, 2021

Health leaders from across East Texas gathered Monday in Tyler to stress the importance of receiving a COVID-19 booster dose, as the Northeast Texas Public Health District announced updated eligibility for it.

NET Health CEO George Roberts announced there are new groups eligible to receive a COVID vaccine booster dose. Vaccines, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says can be mix-and-matched by brand, are for people over 65 years of age, residents of long-term care facilities and people 18 and older who have an underlying medical condition. People over 18 may also get a booster dose if they are at increased risk because their job or living situation exposes them to COVID-19.

According to NET Health, booster shots are recommended for people who have received the two-dose Moderna or the two-dose Pfizer vaccine who are eligible and were vaccinated at least six months ago. For individuals who previously received the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, booster shots are also recommended if they were vaccinated at least two months ago.

The CDC recommends people stick with the vaccine they received initially, but conceded that some individuals may need to mix brands due to preference or availability. COVID-19 booster shots are the same formulation as the current COVID-19 vaccines; however, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine booster shot is half the dose of initial vaccines.

Smith County Health Authority Dr. Paul McGaha said Monday that more than half the residents of Smith County and surrounding counties in rural areas have not yet had a COVID vaccine.

“We will not boost our way out of the pandemic if we’re relying on you to get your first dose of the vaccine,” McGaha said.

McGaha explained why boosters are recommended.

“Studies show that after getting vaccinated against COVID-19, protection against the virus may decrease over time,” McGaha said, especially protection against the Delta variant, which he said is the primary source for the disease now.

Dr. Valerie Smith, pediatrician at St. Paul Children’s Services, stressed the value of vaccines for children.

“Over the last 18 months, we have seen a tremendous hole in the lives of children across the country and in our community. There have been pieces of communication that have said children can’t get COVID or that COVID-19 does not infect children, and we know that is simply not the case,” Smith said.

Smith said the number of children hospitalized for COVID-19 has more than quadrupled across the country in the past several months. “We have seen, in my own practice, children need to be hospitalized,” she said.

Smith said within the next week, children from 5 to 11 years of age will be eligible to receive a vaccine, the dose of which is half the amount of a typical COVID-19 dose for adults. This, too, will be a two-dose series.

Smith is a mother and said she related to parents with questions. She encouraged parents to speak to their pediatricians, who are monitoring vaccine data in children, researching and learning the data.

Vaccines for children are expected to arrive in East Texas once they have been approved, which should be sometime in the middle of next week. The second dose of the vaccine will be able to be given to a child after 21 days of receiving their first dose.

Chief Medical Officer for Christus Trinity Mother Frances, Dr. Mark Anderson, talked about what Christus Health associates have experienced.

“Honestly, this latest surge due to the Delta variant has been a tragedy for many communities and families. We receive transfers from across the region and had the need to double our ICU capacity in order to meet that need,” he said.

Anderson said 90% of patients admitted into the hospital for COVID-19 are unvaccinated, adding that nearly everyone who died in the facility from COVID-19 was unvaccinated.

Dr. Steven Cox of UT Health East Texas reported on the drop in COVID hospitalizations. In the previous month, Cox said UT Health reached a peak of 300 patients in the health system on any given day and as many as 90 patients in the UT Health system on ventilators. This past week, UT Health had less than 50 patients hospitalized with the virus and less than 20 patients on ventilators.

“Most of that progress has been made due to vaccination,” Cox said. “As Dr. Anderson indicated, a vast majority of patients hospitalized today, across our division, are unvaccinated, and those patients have the highest risk. A vast majority of those deaths are in those patients who are unvaccinated.”