On Tuesday, November 1, GTA residents tuned in to a virtual TaxTO town hall hosted by Toronto Public Health to listen and ask questions about the new COVID-19 bivalent vaccine and the fall respiratory season. The online session consisted of a 90-minute question and answer period with Dr. Vinita Dubey the Associate Medical Officer of Health for Toronto Public Health and a faculty member at UofT’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Dubey said that with flu season and COVID-19 among us, it is important to understand methods by which we can protect ourselves from serious illness. This includes receiving the new COVID-19 bivalent booster vaccine. The following are questions asked by citizens surrounding the bivalent vaccine and answered by Dr. Dubey.
How long should you wait to get the new bivalent vaccine if you got the original booster and have had COVID-19 since then?
Dr. Dubey: Not everyone needs to get a booster dose right away. The recommendation is to wait about six months before getting the bivalent dose after receiving a booster shot or having COVID-19. The minimum is to wait three months after an infection or booster dose before getting another because that allows you to get the best response from the vaccine and have the antibodies last as long as they can.
Is there any advantage in the bivalent vaccine over the original vaccine? Is the original vaccine now outdated?
The COVID-19 vaccines are made to try and boost our immune system; they are not trying to match the vaccine to the strain that is circulating around like they do with the flu vaccine each year. The original COVID-19 vaccine has been around for almost two years—which targeted the original strain—and it has provided us protection against every variant that has circulated around our city. Even with the Omicron variant, the original vaccine kept people from getting seriously ill, it would still work. ‘Bivalent’ means that the new vaccine directly targets two strains instead of one; you have protection against the original strain and Omicron-specific strains. The bivalent vaccine is the booster dose they are recommending everyone to get because its purpose is to provide an immune boost for Omicron-type strains. The future variants are expected to be some sort of cousin to Omicron.
Does getting the Moderna bivalent vaccine give you better protection after receiving a Pfizer booster dose?
With the primary series (the first two doses), many people got two different brands of vaccine, which was deemed the ‘mixed’ schedule—for example, the first dose being Pfizer and the second dose, being Moderna. They actually found that the mixed schedule turned out to be a very good move. They cannot say if it will be better to get a mixed schedule for the booster doses, but they can certainly say it will not be worse; you do not have to match your bivalent dose with your first booster dose. The best bivalent vaccine is whatever is available to you.
I received my bivalent booster dose about a month ago. Is it safe for me to get the seasonal flu vaccine?
Yes—there is no time interval recommended to wait in between a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine; you can even get both in the same visit.
If you are interested in learning more about or attending a public health town hall, you can visit toronto.ca/vaccinetownhall. To book a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through the Provincial Vaccine Contact Centre, you can call 1-833-943-3900. There are also pop-up locations around the city that do not require calling in advance.
Dr. Dubey’s responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
