Can’t find an appointment for Moderna’s new booster shot? Factory issues caused a delay
Some Treasure Valley pharmacies are only offering the new COVID-19 booster from Pfizer and BioNTech because of a shortage of Moderna’s version of the shot.
The updated vaccines from the companies are designed to better protect against the latest strains of the omicron variant. The Pfizer-BioNTech booster is authorized for people 5 and older, and the Moderna booster is authorized for people 6 and older.
Millions of Moderna’s doses were delayed by the Food and Drug Administration after a safety inspection at a packaging plant in Bloomington, Indiana, operated by Catalent Inc., raised concerns that the plant was not adequately sterile, according to a Sept. 20 report in The Washington Post.
FDA inspectors found no problems with Moderna’s vaccine and eventually released the doses that had been held back.
The delay caused a shortage of the booster in Idaho and across the country. Claire Colgrove, a pharmacist at Albertsons in Boise, said one of the locations she works at is still dealing with shortages.
“A lot of pharmacies in the area have struggled getting Moderna,” Colgrove told the Idaho Statesman by phone. “For the most part, everyone’s carrying Pfizer.”
Sometimes, availability depends on location. Colgrove said the pharmacy at Albertsons on Broadway has both vaccines, but the grocer’s store at Eagle and McMillan roads has only Pfizer.
“It’s on a store-to-store basis,” she said. “We’ll get (doses of Moderna’s booster), and then we’ll not have it, and then we’ll get it again. It’s really dependent on availability. Pfizer’s been pretty consistent.”
If your usual pharmacy is out of Moderna’s new booster shot, don’t fret. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said people can get the booster from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, regardless of the vaccine they received for their primary series or last booster.
At Walgreens’ stores on Broadway and Overland, the only available COVID-19 vaccine is from Pfizer-BioNTech. But that’s not unusual. Cody Thomas, a pharmacy technician at Walgreens on Overland, said the store has never carried the Moderna vaccine.
“This store has always only had Pfizer,” Thomas told the Statesman by phone. “We did have Johnson & Johnson for a little bit, but that was during the beginning of the pandemic. It’s pretty much been exclusively Pfizer, which makes it easier for us, because it’s all streamlined that way.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2022 at 10:04 AM.
