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Booster Shots are the Best Way to Keep Yourself Safe Right Now Want to stay safe in this stage of the pandemic? Get Boosted

By Charles Marshall

(NAT SOUND: Car drives by.)

CHARLIE MARSHALL: At the start of the day, only one booster shot appointment was still available for today at the state fair vaccine clinic. An epidemiologist at Syracuse University’s Falk School says getting a third dose of vaccine should be a priority for everyone. David Larsen says a so-called booster dose can reduce the risk of getting sick with COVID-19 by 95 percent.

DAVID LARSEN: Yeah, so the booster shot looks like it reduces the risk of illness by 95 percent, compared with two doses of vaccine. And, so, even if you already have the two doses, you don’t want to get real sick or have a few days out — go get the booster, should be good.

MARSHALL: More than keeping yourself safe, Larsen says the booster keeps the community safe. He says the vaccine won’t stop transmission, but it will help slow the spread.

LARSEN: Transmission depends on how long you have COVID in your system and the replication rate of the virus. So, the booster will decrease that length of COVID in your system and so you might still transmit onward, but not as much.

MARSHALL: I’m here in front of the vaccine clinic that they’re hosting at the Art and Home Center at the State Fair here. One Onondaga County resident, Laurie Ludwig, says that she was pleased to see that they opened boosters up to everyone 18-plus, because she hopes that more and more people decide to get vaccinated.

LAURIE LUDWIG: I do, I do. I think if more people were vaccinated we wouldn’t keep having these surges. That’s just my opinion.

MARSHALL: Ludwig also says she thinks getting a booster is simply the right thing to do for herself and the community.

LUDWIG: Well, I know it’s the right thing to do. I, I’ve had COVID, and I watched the news yesterday and saw that there was a new variant and I just felt that, for myself and the people around me, it was the right thing to do.

MARSHALL: Reporting in Syracuse, I’m Charlie Marshall, NCC News.

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (NCC News) — Onondaga County residents over the age of 18 can now register for a third shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, or a second of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. David Larsen, an epidemiologist at Syracuse University’s Falk School, said receiving a booster shot is the best way to stay safe at this point in the pandemic.

Larsen said a third dose raises protection from falling ill due to COVID-19 up to 95 percent, compared to just two doses of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. Larsen said on top of protecting yourself, you’ll also be keeping vulnerable members of the community safe.

“The benefit of the booster at the population level is reduced transmission,” Larsen said. “So it will help protect the vulnerable: the elderly as well as the immunocompromised people.”

Onondaga County residents must be six months past their second dose of Pfizer or Moderna, or two months past their first dose of Johnson & Johnson, to be eligible for a booster shot.

Carl Tuck is one Onondaga resident that went to go get his third shot of Pfizer at a clinic at the New York State Fair Art and Home Center today. Tuck said he wanted the booster shot to protect himself against future variants of COVID-19.

“I’ve been vaccinated, so I thought the booster helps against the variants,” Tuck said. “Trying to fight the COVID.”

Larsen agreed with Tuck’s instinct. Larsen said the best way for Onondaga County residents to protect themselves from the latest Omicron variant is to receive their booster shot.

“Yeah, at this point, boosters and masks, with omicron it’s already here in the U.S. — I can’t guarantee it, but I would imagine, I would put money on it,” Larsen said. “But boosters and masks are the biggest protection that we have.”

Laurie Ludwig, another Onondaga County resident, said she received her booster shot after learning about the omicron variant the night before. Ludwig also said she wants more people in the county to be vaccinated because she thinks a lack of vaccine uptake has led to more deaths across the country.

“I feel like the vaccine is the way to go,” Ludwig said. “I think it will help us to get over this and to get through this.”

Ludwig’s views are based on her own personal encounter with COVID-19. Ludwig said she tested positive for the virus in September after receiving her vaccine in March. She said she thinks her symptoms would have been much stronger had she not taken the vaccine months before she caught COVID-19.

“I think it would have been a whole lot worse had I not been protected by the antibodies that I got from the vaccine,” Ludwig said.

Onondaga County residents that want to sign up electronically for their booster shot can register electronically through the New York State website. 

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