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10 million doses of the latest Pfizer Omicron-specific vaccine are due to arrive in Australia in February 2023, adding to the 4 million Omicron-specific bivalent BA.1 vaccines already here.

All Australians 18 and older who haven’t had a COVID-19 infection or vaccination in the past six months can get an extra booster shot from 20 February 2023. Children aged between five and 17 with a health condition that puts them at risk of severe illness are also eligible.

The Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) is recommending the booster, in particular, for people who are at risk of severe illness.

If you haven’t had other boosters before you don’t need to go back and get them before getting the latest Pfizer Omicron-specific vaccine but you should have already received your first two-dose vaccine course.

Catherine Bennett, chair of epidemiology at Deakin University says “What we’re hearing from overseas with these latest bivalent vaccines – which came out from the CDC [Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the national public health agency in the United States] – they are seeing an actual reduction in infection rates, not a big reduction, but still a reduction in those that have a more recent booster.”^

Bennett says that our focus should also still be on protecting vulnerable Australians. “We are still seeing it [COVID-19] being a leading cause of death in elderly,” she says.^

What if I’m not at particular risk?

Most people have hybrid immunity through past vaccinations and/or having had COVID-19 with the focus on those at risk of more severe illness.

Young fit adults with some hybrid immunity, and who weren’t previously unwell with COVID, might decide another booster is worth it, to enable them to be more relaxed around relatives or the elderly.

Robert Booy, honorary professor at Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute at the University of Sydney says people in their 40s and up may reasonably decide that the benefits of an additional booster outweigh the risks of suffering an adverse reaction to it, such as muscle and joint pain, fever, fatigue and vomiting, or myocarditis and pericarditis.

Which vaccine should I get?

The Australian Technical Advisory Group (ATAGI) has advised that Omicron-specific mRNA booster vaccines are the preferred option. This means the Moderna or Pfizer BA.1 vaccine, which is already available, or the Pfizer BA.4[-5] vaccine, which protects against the BA.4 and 5 subvariants that caused a wave of cases in Australia last winter. Both are bivalent vaccines, meaning they target both the original COVID strain and the Omicron variant in a single shot.

All available COVID-19 vaccines would provide a benefit, according to ATAGI. The official advice is to get the booster when you can. For people who are more than six months out from a COVID infection or a COVID vaccine, if you have an interest, it may be of benefit to have it now instead of waiting for winter and contracting the infection before the season hits.

Are there any potential side effects?

“It’s generally well tolerated, and people who have had it [a COVID vaccine] before aren’t finding new side effects,” says Booy about the new bivalent vaccines, which were rolled out in the United States and Britain last year. “There are rare side effects, which we recognise [with COVID vaccines], but they’re not occurring more often this time around,” he says, referring to myocarditis and pericarditis (inflammation of the tissue surrounding the heart). “And it may be less common,” Booy says, due to how widely spaced apart this latest immunisation is from previous ones.^

The mRNA vaccines have been associated with an extremely rare risk of developing myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), mostly in males under 30. Side effects usually go away without complications, although rare cases can lead to permanent damage of the heart muscle and possibly cause heart failure.

Click here to read the ATAGI recommendation on use of the Pfizer bivalent (Original/Omicron BA.4/5) COVID-19 vaccine.

Anyone who has had an adverse reaction from a previous COVID vaccine should speak to their doctor before getting an additional booster.

Where can I get a COVID booster?

To find out where you can get a booster, visit your nearest Our Medical centre.

You can also visit your nearest Our Medical location page for more information including when the latest Pfizer Omicron-specific vaccine booster is available.

 

^Source: COVID vaccine: Which Australians are eligible for a booster? (smh.com.au)