Who is eligible for third dose?

Lamont implements CDCS recommendation for vaccine boosters

Gov. Ned Lamont announced Saturday that Connecticut is implementing the recommendation of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that immunocompromised individuals receive a third dose of the COVD-19 vaccine.

The CDC’S recommendation came Friday, one day after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized a third dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for immunocompromised individuals. Connecticut followed the CDC’S guidance on this issue at the advice of Dr. Deidre Gifford, acting commissioner of the state Department of Public Health.

“The Connecticut Department of Public Health will work with providers and the public to ensure that individuals who need a third dose can get one,” Lamont said in a statement. “Our vaccine providers stand ready to provide COVID vaccines in line with these updated recommendations.”

Here’s more on what this means for Connecticut residents:

Who is eligible?

According to Lamont’s office, “recipients of solid organ transplants and others who are moderately or severely immunocompromised” are advised to receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Research has found that the first two doses of the vaccine offer less protection to immunocompromised individuals than their non-immunocompromised counterparts.

The CDC’S guidance applies to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

only and not the Johnson & Johnson one (Pfizer and Moderna are messenger RNA, or MRNA, vaccines, while Johnson & Johnson’s is a carrier vaccine). Eligible individuals can get their third dose at least four weeks following their second dose and will not be required to provide prescriptions or a doctor referral to receive the vaccine.

What counts as immunocompromised?

Lamont’s announcement defined immunocompromised individuals as the following:

Active treatment for solid tumor and hematologic malignancies.

Receipt of solid-organ transplant and taking immunosuppressive therapy.

Receipt of Car-t-cell or hematopoietic stem cell transplant (within two years of transplantation or taking immunosuppression therapy).

Moderate or severe primary immunodeficiency (e.g., Digeorge syndrome, Wiskott-aldrich syndrome).

Advanced or untreated HIV infection.

Active treatment with high-dose corticosteroids (i.e., ≥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.

Those unsure of whether they qualify are advised to confer with a doctor.