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New Boosters Available Soon for COVID Subvariants

The Rock Island County Health Department is preparing to start dispensing the new COVID-19 booster vaccines. They're designed to protect against the Omicron subvariants, which are now the dominant strains of the virus.

Chief Operating Officer Janet Hill says Pfizer's is authorized for people 12 and older, while the Moderna vaccine is approved for 18 and older. And you can "mix and match."

"So someone who is 12 years old and had the Moderna primary vaccine series can get Pfizer for the boooster and that would be absolutely fine."

Even though it may seem like the worst of the pandemic is over, Hill says the virus is still circulating widely in our community. And we should think of booster shots as just another part of our regular health care.

"And so getting your booster will protect you against being seriously ill or dying, and that is the most important part of this campaign- that it may not protect you from gettting sick at all but there's a good likelihood that it will."

Once supplies of the new vaccines arrive, possibly later this week, the Rock Island County Health Department will continue to hold its walk-in clinics - for Moderna on Tuesdays and Pfizer on Fridays.

A native of Detroit, Herb Trix began his radio career as a country-western disc jockey in Roswell, New Mexico (“KRSY, your superkicker in the Pecos Valley”), in 1978. After a stint at an oldies station in Topeka, Kansas (imagine getting paid to play “Louie Louie” and “Great Balls of Fire”), he wormed his way into news, first in Topeka, and then in Freeport Illinois.