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Will I qualify for the new COVID vaccine when its released next month?

photo courtesy of Associated Press

(SEATTLE) For the first time since we had a COVID vaccine, it’s been revised and improved, and a local expert says everyone should qualify to get it when its released next month for a couple of reasons.

And this new vaccine should stomp out Omicron…

“The vaccine has been modifed to basically address the new variants that have emerged,” says Doctor Ali Mokdad at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. “BA-4 and BA-5 included.”

BA-5 is currently responsible for the majority of COVID-positive cases in this country, and is said to spread faster and easier than any of its predecessors. What’s worse, many people who’ve already succumbed to BA-4 and BA-5 are experiencing reinfections 3-4 weeks later.

Mokdad expects another wave of COVID infections in September, so the timing of this new vaccine is everything.  When you conisder the last booster offered to adults over the age of 50, immunity is already beginning to wane, and those people who were first in line will definitely be due for a booster next month. But unlike the last booster release, all ages should qualify to receive this booster.

“Once we have the new vaccine designed especially for Omicron and Delta, we will reset that clock, and we will make it available for everybody immediately,” he tells Northwest Newsradio.

If you’ve been putting off getting the current booster, Mokdad says don’t.  He expects our waning immunity combined with the new formula will justify everyone be eligible for the new vaccine, no matter when we had our last booster.

“From a public health standpoint, its the only way we can convince people to take the boosters available now,” Mokdad says.

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