Let’s discuss COVID-19 Bivalent Booster Effectiveness
There has been a lot of talk about the new Bivalent COVID-19 vaccination, but just how effective is it? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has been tracking effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccinations and has added bivalent booster information to their data sets, giving us a great opportunity understand how it impacts illness and hospitalization.
Similar to previous COVID-19 vaccination data, this data supports the thought that the bivalent boosters are having a positive effect for our population. The recent article posted by the CDC, Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status, gives us insight into the effects of getting boosted. They determined, “People who were vaccinated with an updated (bivalent) booster dose had lower rates of dying from COVID-19 and slightly lower rates of testing positive for COVID-19 compared with people who were vaccinated but had not received an updated booster dose.”
The populations we manage as healthcare providers may be at higher risk for infection or adverse outcomes from COVID-19 so we have an opportunity to help them stay as safe as possible by offering the bivalent booster. There are resources available to providers to help answer questions about the bivalent booster and promote the effectiveness against severe outcomes.
- Why Long Term Care Residents Should Get the COVID-19 Bivalent Booster
- This document, provided by the American Health Care Association (AHCA) and the National Center for Assisted Living (NCAL) is a 2 page flyer that can be printed and used as resident and family educational tool.
- COVID-19 Vaccination and Therapeutics in PALTC Toolkit: Resources for Clinicians
- This toolkit, known as the Vax and Pax toolkit, is a great resource for clinicians to review and have on hand in their facilities.
- Pages 4-5 are full of FAQs on the bivalent booster
Bottom line, bivalent boosters are effective in preventing severe illness and deaths and need to be promoted to our residents and the public as the pandemic continues to cause severe illness and deaths nationwide.
