The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Covid is again surging across the United States, Wahkiakum Health and Human ServicesDirector Chris Bischoff said on Friday.

“There is a new dominant strain, but it is not of more concern health-wise than other strains,” he said.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control have approved updated boosters from Moderna and Pfizer for covid-19 and anyone who has not had a covid-19 booster in the last two months is encouraged to get this one.

The booster will be available at many locations in the next few weeks, Bischoff said, though it will be a while before the health department opens up their vaccine clinic again. They’ve hired a new public nurse, but she is still waiting to gain access to state systems necessary to provide vaccines.

“We will message out when we can restart,” Bischoff said. “I would encourage people to get their covid-19, flu, and RSV vaccines as soon as they are available, and not wait for us.”

Bischoff strongly encourages anyone 60 and over to get the vaccine for RSV or respiratory syncytial virus.

The Cathlamet Pharmacy has flu shots and the vaccine for RSV available. They are hoping to get the updated covid-19 vaccine in a couple weeks. Call 360-795-3691 to schedule an appointment to receive any of the vaccines.

As for the newest covid-19 vaccine, which will be available in future weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says it is “confident in the safety and effectiveness of these updated vaccines and the agency’s benefit-risk assessment demonstrates that the benefits of these vaccines for individuals six most of age or older outweigh their risks,” according to its website.

The site also states that the updated vaccines are manufactured using a similar process a previous formulations, that side effects of the updated vaccines are similar to the side effects of prior covid-19 vaccines, and with the new vaccines, the recent bivalent vaccines are no longer authorized for use in the United States.

“Updated vaccines are expected to provide good protection against covid-19 from the currently circulating variants. Barring the emergence of a markedly more virulent variant, the FDA anticipates that the composition of covid-19 vaccines may need to be updated annually, as is done for the season influenza vaccine,” said the FDA.