If you want to be among the first to get the latest, just-approved versions of the new Covid vaccines, you can sign up online now for an appointment in Darien as soon as this coming Monday morning.
As of this morning (Tuesday, Sept. 12), there are open slots to get an appointment for the vaccine as early as 10:30 a.m., Monday, at the CVS pharmacy on the Post Road. CVS is also offering appointments in Stamford and Norwalk, although if you want the Pfizer vaccine instead of the Moderna one, that seems to be available in Norwalk sooner than Stamford.
While the 2023 versions of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control will have the final say on whether to approve them. The CDC is expected to announce its decision today, Tuesday, with drug shipments going out immediately. CVS is already offering appointments for people who want to get the new shots.
As of early Tuesday morning, the CVS website showed just about every time slot available for just the first available day (only 10 a.m. seems to be unavailable):
Open for vaccination business on Monday at CVS in Darien. This is the first day the new vaccines are available at the store. On other days, you can get an appointment as early as 10 a.m.
An employee at Grieb’s Pharmacy said this morning that the new vaccines haven’t been delivered yet. The Walgreens website gives options for covid vaccine appointments only as late as this coming Monday — but when you try to make one for that date (or earlier), it tells you that there are none available within 25 miles of Darien.
According to this search page on the U.S. government’s Vaccines.gov website, there are plenty of CVS and RiteAid pharmacies near Darien where you can make appointments for the new vaccines now, although in Darien itself, only the CVS pharmacy is shown to be available (as of Tuesday morning):
From the Vaccines.gov website
You can book an appointment now for the latest Covid vaccines at one location in Darien (CVS) or at these CVS or RiteAid pharmacies nearby.
Yes, They’re the New Version of the Vaccines
The CVS website says that with government approval for the new vaccines on Monday, Sept. 11, the old vaccines can no longer be given, only the up-to-date ones, and CVS allows you to make an appointment to get one as early as this coming Monday.
Here’s the announcement on the CVS Covid vaccine main web page:
CVS says only the latest versions of the Covid vaccines can be given. The CVS Covid appointments web pages were down for at least part of Monday but are back up as of Tuesday morning, and they’re allowing appointments for as early as Monday.
The latest version of influenza vaccinations will be available as well, according to this New York Times article published Monday:
“The Food and Drug Administration approved a new round of Covid boosters on Monday, that will arrive alongside the seasonal flu vaccine and shots to protect infants and older adults from R.S.V., a potentially lethal respiratory virus.”
CDC, Study: You Can Get Your Flu & Covid Shots at the Same Time
A recent study supports the CDC recommendation from last winter that people should no longer avoid getting flu shots at the same time that they get their Covid shots, according to the University of Minnesota .
“COVID-19 and influenza vaccines can be safety administered together, with no significant drop in antibody response, according to a study led by Sheba Medical Center researchers in Israel,” said a Sept. 8 article on the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy website.
The article also states:
“COVID-19 and flu vaccines used to be administered separately, but ‘during the 2022 to 2023 influenza season the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other organizations recommended coadministration of these vaccines, aiming to reduce the burden on the health care system and increase adherence to vaccination,’ the study authors wrote.
“The incidence of systemic reactions in participants who received only the COVID-19 vaccine was 27.4%, while it was 12.7% in flu-only vaccinees, and 27.6% in those who received both.”
So, according to the study: Your chances of having some reaction to a Covid vaccine available last year was 0.2% more if you got last year’s flu vaccine at the same time.
____________________
SIDEBAR:
Scientists Say Don’t be Late, Be a Smarty, If You’re Headed to the Vaccine Party
Don’t argue with us about it, argue with the scientists:
“Intelligent people get their COVID-19 vaccines much faster, suggests a study of more than 750,000 people in Sweden published in the Journal of Health Economics. […]
“A total of 80% of the most intelligent people were vaccinated within 40 days of vaccine availability, while it took 180 days for those with the lowest cognitive ability to reach that level. The results, the researchers said, suggest that the complexity of the vaccination decision may make it difficult for people with lower cognitive abilities to understand the benefits of vaccination.”
— from “Smart people first in line for COVID-19 vaccines, study suggests,” a news brief on the University of Minnesota Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy website (Sept. 8, 2023)