Northwest Georgia health departments offering third vaccine dose to qualifying individuals

Note: The following item was provided by Northwest Georgia Public Health. – KtE

ROME, GA:  According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers 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 are among those available to provide booster vaccinations for COVID-19 for those meeting the above requirements, or for those who remain unvaccinated.

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