Northwest Georgia health departments* offering third vaccine dose to qualifying individuals

 

ROME, GA:  According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and theCenters for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an additional (third) dose of COVID-19 vaccine should be considered for people with moderate to severe immune compromise due to a medical condition or receipt of immunosuppressive medications or treatments.

 

People should get the same vaccine  —  Moderna or Pfizer  —  as they received for their first two doses of the series. Citing lack of data, the FDA and CDC have not issued guidance for people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

 

Health departments in the Georgia Department of Public Health Northwest Health District* will provide the additional (third) dose of COVID-19

vaccine, on request, if the patient can self-attest to one of the qualifying immunocompromising medical conditions:

 

• Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies

 

• Receipt of a solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy

 

• Receipt of CAR-T-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within 2 years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy)

 

• Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (such as DiGeorge syndrome, Wiskott-Aldrich syndrome)

 

• Advanced or untreated HIV infection

 

• Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (≥20mg prednisone or equivalent per day), alkylating agents, antimetabolites, transplant-related immunosuppressive drugs, cancer chemotherapeutic agents classified as severely immunosuppressive, tumor-necrosis (TNF) blockers, and other biologic agents that are immunosuppressive or immunomodulatory

 

*Bartow, Catoosa, Chattooga, Dade, Floyd, Gordon, Haralson, Paulding, Polk, and Walker county health departments