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MARQUETTE -- The Michigan Department of Health and Humans Services urges certain Michiganders to get a booster shot if they received Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine.
The Monday recommendation follows FDA approval, recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and additional recommendations by the CDC director.
This includes people ages 65 and older, individuals 18 through 64 years of age at high risk of severe COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions and those at high risk of COVID-19 due to occupational or institutional exposure.
The Marquette County Health Department said it has appointments available at its Negaunee location, which can be made by calling 906-475-7847. MCHD will hold community clinics this Saturday and on Oct. 9 at Northern Michigan University. Appointments for the Saturday clinics can be made by following the scheduling link at mqthealth.org or calling 906-475-7847. Individuals are asked to bring their insurance cards, photo IDs and vaccination cards.
MCHD said that unlike last winter, the vaccine is widely available in the community, and there are alternative locations that can provide boosters as well. These include area pharmacies and provider offices that have enrolled in the COVID-19 Vaccine Provider program.
Information about these sites can be found at mqthealth.org.
"The safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine is already protecting millions of Michiganders from this deadly virus," said Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, chief medical executive and chief deputy for health at MDHHS, in a statement. "With the Delta variant circulating and cases of COVID-19 increasing, the CDC and the FDA have determined that a booster dose is needed for some individuals to maintain and increase that level of protection. We urge all eligible Michiganders to get their booster dose six months after their second dose to help protect against COVID-19."
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced last week that Dr. Natasha Bagdasarian will serve as chief medical executive for the state of Michigan beginning on Friday. Khaldun has accepted a new position to pursue an opportunity outside of state government, which will be announced in the coming weeks.
Since early 2020, Bagdasarian has provided technical guidance on outbreak preparedness and COVID-19 to the international community. For the last year, she has served the state of Michigan as senior public health physician with the Department of Health and Human Services, where she oversaw the SARS-CoV-2 testing strategy for the state.
The CDC recommends people age 65 and older and residents age 18 and over in long-term care settings as well as people age 50 through 64 with certain underlying medical conditions receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine at least six months after their Pfizer-BioNTech primary series.
The CDC recommends the following groups may receive a booster shot of Pfizer-BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine at least six months after their Pfizer-BioNTech primary series based on their individual benefits and risks:
≤ people aged 18 through 49 who are at high risk for severe COVID-19 due to certain underlying medical conditions;
≤ people aged 18 through 64 years who are at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission because of occupational or institutional setting;
≤ per the CDC, occupations at increased risk for COVID-19 exposure and transmission, which include frontline essential workers and health care workers such as first responders, education staff, U.S. Postal Service workers, corrections staff, and workers in the food and agriculture, manufacturing, public transit and grocery store industries.
The booster recommendation pertains only to individuals who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Those who received Johnson & Johnson or Moderna vaccines are not eligible for a booster vaccine under the current recommendations, although additional guidance is expected soon.
Michiganders should bring their COVID-19 vaccine cards or immunization records with them when getting their booster dose, which is available at any vaccine provider that has Pfizer-BioNTech.
Immunization records are available online at the Michigan Immunization Portal for many residents and can be downloaded and printed.
To obtain their record, Michiganders must create a MILogin account at Michigan.gov/MiImmsportal and upload a valid government issued photo ID such as a driver's license, state ID or passport. There is no cost to access the portal.
MDHHS reported that as of Monday, more than 67.2% of Michiganders -- more than 5.4 million residents -- have gotten at least their first dose of one of the vaccines. From January to July, unvaccinated Michiganders accounted for 98% of COVID cases, 95% of hospitalizations and 96% of deaths.
Attorneys general want loan forgiveness program fixed
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Tuesday that she has joined a coalition of 22 attorneys general in urging the U.S. Department of Education to take "robust" action to fix the broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness program.
Since borrowers first became eligible for relief in 2017, almost all PSLF applications have been rejected, leaving millions of public servants in the lurch, the attorney general's office stated.
In a Tuesday letter, the coalition applauded DOE's commitment to improving implementation of the PSLF program and urged DOE to act quickly to fix the failures in the program's administration.
"The effectiveness of the PSLF program has been abysmal thus far," Nessel said in a statement. "We owe it to those who are dedicating their lives to public service to ensure that commitment is properly acknowledged and appreciated. Otherwise, the bipartisan support for the program was wasted effort."
A bipartisan Congress created the PSLF program in 2007 to encourage student loan borrowers to enter public service jobs in return for forgiving the remaining balance of their federal student loans after 10 years of on-time loan payments, the attorney general's office said. When the first wave of borrowers applied for loan forgiveness in 2017, DOE denied applicants at a rate of 99%.
In 2018, a bipartisan Congress created the Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. However, to date, DOE has denied 96% of TEPSLF applications.
In Tuesday's letter, the attorneys general urged DOE to:
≤ provide immediate relief to borrowers who have been harmed by what they called the "misadministration" of the PSLF/TEPSLF program;
≤ improve servicer oversight and accountability by carefully selecting a new servicer that will be responsive to borrowers and creating new incentives and operating procedures that put borrowers first;
≤ extend the pause on payments on student loans that started in response to the COVID-19 pandemic;
≤ conduct broad outreach to all borrowers potentially interested in forgiveness, including those who have yet to apply and those who have already received denials; and
≤ affirmatively correct errors discovered for all affected borrowers.
Joining Nessel in sending this letter were the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
Christie Mastric can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 250. Her email address is cbleck@miningjournal.net.