Booster battle: N.S. pharmacists urge patients to research before booking

With COVID-19 booster programs ramping-up again this fall, health officials have an important message: not all boosters are created equal, at the moment.

Right now, Moderna's bivalent vaccine is the only approved shot that offers some protection against the Omicron variant, but few people seem to know that.

In updated guidance issued Sept. 1, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said "For adults 18 years of age and older who are recommended to receive a fall booster dose, NACI recommends that the authorized dose of a bivalent Omicron-containing mRNA COVID-19 vaccine should be offered."

Still, whether habit or name preference, it would seem many people have been booking Pfizer shots.

"I can see that a lot of people have booked for a Pfizer appointment. And we did some preliminary reach out to some folks, and it's clear that many of these individuals think they're booking a Pfizer bivalent, when in fact, they have booked the Pfizer ancestral vaccine,” says Allison Bodnar, CEO of the Pharmacy Association of Nova Scotia (PANS).

“We just want to let everyone know that, if you are trying to get a bivalent vaccine this week or next, you should be booking a Moderna appointment.”

Bodnar says the Pfizer bivalent is not approved in Canada at this time.

Pharmacists say the situation is confusing, and will lead to disappointment when people show-up for appointments.

"We booked a clinic later this week on Friday, and it is for the original Pfizer vaccine," says Diane Harpell, a Pharmacist and chair of PANS.

"That clinic is full, and then in the middle of everyone booking for that, they released the news to say, 'you should be looking at Moderna, the bivalent one.' So, I'm sure we will have people coming, expecting that they're getting the updated vaccine and they're not," says Harpell, who is also on the Canadian Pharmacists Association board of directors.

"Actually, in the next little while, there will be a Pfizer bivalent vaccine, we have to wait for the whole approval process to happen, and we're not there yet. But you'll start to see that on a regular basis that the vaccines will be updated, depending on what variants are out there," says Harpell.

"It (Pfizer) was a great vaccine last week. It still is a great vaccine, but there have been updated recommendations between then and now."