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