AHN Continues Extensive COVID-19 Vaccination Campaign to Include Moderna and J&J COVID-19 Boosters Following CDC and FDA Emergency Use Authorization

Monday, October 25, 2021

Press Releases

PITTSBURGH (October 25, 2021) - Following emergency use authorization (EUA) by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of second and third doses of the respective Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Moderna COVID-19 vaccination series, Allegheny Health Network (AHN) clinicians will continue to administer booster shots across western Pennsylvania to these newly-eligible patients.

Eligible groups include those over 65-years-old, individuals from 18 to 64 years with underlying health conditions and those who are at increased risk of COVID-19 transmission from their occupation or residence in long-term care facilities. Patients must wait at least six months from their second vaccine dose to be eligible for Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech boosters or two months from their initial J&J vaccine.

Patients who wish to schedule an appointment for their booster shot may do so by visiting the Network's online scheduling portal at ahn.org/coronavirus/vaccine/schedule, contacting their primary care physician via MyChart or reaching out to their local pharmacy. Available vaccination slots across AHN may be limited at this time but are continuously released on a rolling basis.

COVID-19 boosters will primarily be administered across primary care and hospital-based vaccine clinics. Since Pfizer received EUA for its third dose in late September, AHN has led an exhaustive vaccination campaign to reach as many eligible recipients as possible. To date, the Network has administered more than 21,000 booster shots and nearly 379,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses in total throughout its footprint.

As part of the latest EUA, the CDC also provided guidance that now allows for eligible individuals to opt into "mixing and matching" COVID-19 vaccine brands, stating that people fully immunized with one company's vaccine may now receive a different vaccine for their booster shot.

Those receiving their booster may experience mostly mild to moderate symptoms which will often mimic the side effects originally felt during their primary series i.e. soreness at the injection site, feeling of general malaise for one to two days, etc. Doctors say these side effects once again signal the expected immune reaction.

For more information on AHN and the Network's coronavirus resources, please visit https://www.ahn.org/coronavirus.html.

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