Much support, some skepticism with new booster set to arrive in Santa Fe

Sep. 7—The latest coronavirus booster shot appears to be drawing more support from those who are eligible to bare their arms for yet another jab in the 2 1/2 -year pandemic.

Federal health authorities last week approved the new booster, aimed at the more infectious omicron BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants, in an effort to ward off a surge more likely to occur during the fall and winter when people spend more time indoors and at holiday gatherings.

Even though BA.5 has milder symptoms and isn't likely to kill younger people, there's no point in risking your health or other people's, said Terry Banen, a local nurse practitioner for Presbyterian Medical Services.

"I don't see the harm in getting it," he said of the booster.

One point of contention is the booster has not undergone human clinical trials. Health officials say such trials aren't necessary because the booster is based on a version developed for the earlier and similar BA.1.

Another debate centers on whether there should be a longer interval than two months between the last time a person received a shot or contracted COVID-19.

Still, the booster, the first full update of the original mRNA vaccine, is expected to roll out soon, with New Mexico set to receive 54,400 doses. The shot is bivalent, which means it can take on two different strains.

New Mexico will discontinue the prior vaccine and will administer only the latest version when it becomes available, the state Department of Health announced after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention approved the new booster.

Health officials agree it's vital that all eligible people receive the next booster, even if they've received all their previous shots, because BA.5 in particular is more able to evade earlier vaccines and people's immunity bolstered by previous infections.

"We are all tired of COVID-19, but staying up-to-date on vaccines continues to be our best tool to prevent serious illness, hospitalization and death," Dr. Denise Gonzales, a pulmonary and critical care physician with the Presbyterian Medical Group, wrote in an email. "Low turnout for the booster could contribute to a bigger surge in cases and result in more serious illness during the fall and winter months."

In the Santa Fe area, where the vaccination rate is high, most residents seem to embrace the next round of shots.

The bulk of those responding to an informal survey on the Santa Fe Bulletin Board, a Facebook page, said they planned to get the booster. That's in contrast to a contentious debate two years ago on the same page over whether to get the vaccine.

"I recognize that it may not necessarily prevent me from getting sick, but I do understand it's supposed to shorten illness and make it less severe," Jennifer M. Day, a Santa Fe museum registrar, said in an interview. "Also, I feel if it helps to prevent it, then I'm not spreading it."

Day said she knows of people who have refused to be inoculated because they don't trust medical science and would rather listen to an anti-vaccine family member than health experts.

"I have a very strong faith in science, and I think that is somewhat lacking in our society right now," Day said.

On the Facebook page, Cynthia Carrison, 67, wondered "how many more shots big pharmaceutical will dream up before it's all over? There's no way I'm getting anymore."

But in a later interview, Carrison said her immunity is severely compromised, so her doctor hasn't allowed her to receive even one shot. That's fine, she added, because she wouldn't get vaccinated even if she could.

Many of her vaccinated friends have contracted COVID-19, some of them more than once, and yet they keep getting these vaccines that don't seem to work too well, Carrison argued.

"I think that they rush things so fast to get them on the market, and a lot of people are like sheep," she said. "Whatever they think that might help."

Banen was on the Facebook thread, pushing back on vaccine refusers, though not specifically Carrison.

Many immunized people have gotten COVID-19, but that's not a valid reason to forgo any of the shots, including the upcoming booster, Banen said. No vaccine is 100 percent effective, and the purpose is to ease the symptoms to avoid ending up miserably sick or on a ventilator, he added.

As for bypassing clinical testing, Gonzales wrote in her email it's a slight variation of the same technology used for billions of shots.

"The annual flu shot is approached in the same way," she added.

Jodi McGinnis Porter, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health, agreed, saying her agency has no concerns about the fast-tracking.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration based its approval of the booster on real-world evidence of COVID-19 vaccine safety, plus clinical trial data of earlier vaccines and information on the BA.5 shots given to mice, she wrote.

"The approach is nothing new," McGinnis Porter wrote. "The agency already uses a similar strategy with flu shots, which are safely updated each year without human testing."

A health expert wrote in an email the lack of human trials should be better explained so it doesn't become a sticking point to getting the booster.

"People have legitimate concerns that need to be addressed," wrote Jagdish Khubchandani, a public health professor at New Mexico State University. "The CDC has a job to communicate and explain."

Karla Milosevich, 56, of Santa Fe said she has no misgivings about getting the next booster. She has a friend who helped develop the original vaccine at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, so she knows the vaccines being dispensed have many years of research behind them, she said.

Still, she said she understands how some people could feel this might be one shot too many, especially as COVID-19 symptoms become milder and the illness seems more akin to the flu.

"I guess I see both sides of that one," Milosevich said. "The urgency has passed a bit."