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The Medlink Georgia branch in Lexington offers the latest COVID-19 booster. (Submitted Photo) -
The Medlink Georgia branch in Lexington offers the latest COVID-19 booster. (Submitted Photo)
Various locations in Oglethorpe County offer the updated COVID-19 booster, and local health professionals continue to spread the word about its effectiveness.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of a new booster vaccine for protection against COVID-19 on Aug. 31. Termed bivalent, it’s aimed to protect people from both the original strain of the virus, plus the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.
Oglethorpe County health officials continue to work to inform the public about the new bivalent booster and stress the importance of getting vaccinated.
But according to the CDC’s online database, only 42.9% of Oglethorpe County residents are fully vaccinated with one of the three COVID-19 vaccines in use.
Taneicia Johnson, practice manager at Medlink Oglethorpe, has seen up close the value of interpersonal communication in public health messaging.
“A lot of our outreach here in Oglethorpe is by word-of-mouth; you know, everybody kind of knows everybody,” Johnson said.
Medlink Oglethorpe is a branch of Medlink Georgia, a federally qualified community health center that provides primary healthcare in 25 locations across Northeast Georgia.
“Sometimes when you’re in a smaller community, you don’t hear things as you should, if you stayed in a larger community,” Johnson said. “So just with us being so close-knit, most of the time our patients will go take the word out there and then people come.”
Booster vaccinations at the Medlink Oglethorpe location began on Sept. 21 and will occur once a month.
In an email, Trisha Jones, the director of clinical services at Medlink Georgia, provided CDC guidelines for who should receive the new booster.
“The CDC recommends the new booster vaccine for everyone who has completed their primary vaccine series,” Jones said. “A primary series consists of either two doses of Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or 1 dose of J&J (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine. Even if an individual has had previous (monovalent) boosters in the past, the new bivalent COVID-19 booster is still recommended for those ages 12 and up.”
Johnson also clarified that those seeking to receive bivalent booster vaccines won’t be turned away at Medlink locations if they don’t have insurance.
“With the vaccines, there is a $20 admin fee that is usually covered by insurance,” Johnson said. “But if you’re on our sliding scale fee, and you don’t have insurance, then the sliding scale fee covers that.”
Like many healthcare workers, Johnson said she believes getting vaccinated helps keep individuals and their loved ones safe and healthy.
“I feel that everybody should get vaccinated,” she said. “Everybody wants to be around family, friends, and we all may not have the best immune system. So, let’s protect all of us.”