(Radio Iowa) – Recent data published by the Centers for Disease Control show the most recent bivalent COVID-19 booster is very effective in preventing hospitalizations of older Iowans. Some of the state data came from the University of Iowa and it shows that people over 65 who got the bivalent booster were 73 percent less likely to be hospitalized with COVID than those who have just received doses of a monovalent vaccine. U-I emergency medicine professor, Nick Mohr, says the elderly aren’t the only ones who can benefit from the bivalent booster. “Being vaccinated is important not only for those people, but for the people who are in their families and their loved ones and friends to protect the people who are most likely to have bad outcomes from COVID 19 infection,” Mohr says.

He says the bivalent booster is also effective against the new highly transmittable XBB.1.5 subvariant. “The vaccine is still especially effective at preventing hospitalization and death and COVID-19. And even with the new variant, it looks like the bivalent vaccine is still an effective tool in the toolbox,” he says.

Information from the C-D-C shows just more than half of Iowa seniors who are 65 and older have received the bivalent booster.

(reporting by Natalie Krebs, Iowa Public Radio)