EAST SYRACUSE, N.Y. (WSYR-TV) – Health experts are urging everyone who’s eligible to get the new COVID-19 booster shot to do it ASAP, especially by Halloween.
However, some of you have called and emailed the Your Stories team wondering why it’s hard to find the Moderna COVID boosters, especially at Kinney Drugs.
Though it’s unclear why Kinney Drugs is only offering the new Pfizer booster shots at this time, the company said in a statement that it’s hoping to get a supply of the new Moderna boosters ASAP.
We are working with our federal vaccine partners and hope to have Moderna bivalent COVID boosters available within the coming weeks. We encourage people to subscribe to Kinney’s Be the First to Know alerts by texting COVID to 51094 &/or visiting https://kinneydrugs.com/pharmacy/covid-19/email-sign-up/ to receive email &/or text from Kinney Drugs when Moderna bivalent booster appointments are open.
STATEMENT: KINNEY DRUGS
NewsChannel 9 did some additional digging to find what pharmacies in Central New York are currently offering the new Moderna booster shots. Come to find out, you’re options are pretty slim!
We checked to see what boosters are available within a 60-mile radius of our studios in East Syracuse.
At our last check on Monday, Kinney Drugs, Rite-Aid, CVS, and Wegmans are only offering Pfizer boosters. Each pharmacy has zero and/or limited supply of Moderna boosters.
Rite-Aid sent the following statement to NewsChannel 9 about its COVID-19 vaccine supply.
“We have received limited supply of the updated Moderna COVID-19 booster and expect to receive additional supply in the coming weeks. We are actively working to increase inventory of COVID boosters and have sufficient supply of Pfizer updated boosters in all stores. Customers can go to riteaid.com/pharmacy/scheduler to schedule an appointment.”
STATEMENT: RITE-AID
On Price Chopper’s website, the company wrote it anticipated receiving a supply of the Moderna boosters shots on Sunday, September 17. However, when we checked for appointments online, none were available yet, only for Pfizer boosters.
In addition to Pfizer booster appointments, select Walgreens, Walmart, and Tops Markets pharmacies in Central New York have Moderna booster doses on-hand, but there is a limited supply and only a handful of appointments.
While the CDC does not recommend mixing COVID-19 vaccines for your primary series, people 18 years and up can switch the maker of their booster from their initial vaccine doses.
Only people 12 years and up are eligible to get the new bivalent booster shot at this time.
For more information on the CDC’s guidance on mixing COVID-19 vaccine products, click here.
