Hy-Vee pharmacies are helping the Polk County health department provide booster shots to more than 14,000 residents whose second-round vaccinations against COVID-19 were delayed last month.
The problem surfaced in mid-February, when the county health department learned it was receiving less of the Moderna brand of the vaccine than it expected to get from the state, which is directing shipments from federal stocks. The county health department said on Feb. 3 that it was receiving more than it expected of the Pfizer brand, but less Moderna vaccine.
Both brands require two shots for full protection, and patients are supposed to get the same brand for both injections. The unplanned shift in Polk County s supply left several thousand central Iowans in the lurch, because they d received initial doses of the Moderna brand, the county health department said last week.