Tremendous strides have been made in the treatment and management of COVID-19 in under three years. Vaccination against the virus has proven incredibly effective at boosting immunity and preventing extreme illness, hospitalization and death from COVID-19 infection. For most people, at this point, being fully vaccinated allows them to largely return to their “normal” lives. However, maintaining a fully vaccinated status means getting booster shots as they become available, including the new bivalent booster vaccines now widely available nationwide.
On Tuesday, October 11, at 4 pm, Dartmouth Health will host a free webinar offering information on the bivalent booster vaccines, which will be open to the community. Michael S. Calderwood, MD, MPH, chief quality officer at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center, and Sally A. Kraft, MD, vice president of Population Health at Dartmouth Health, will host the webinar and address the science behind the vaccine, its efficacy, age recommendations and community collaboration and access. Calderwood and Kraft will also take questions from participants.
“The case fatality rate of COVID-19 has dramatically declined, due to less deadly variants and improved population immunity through vaccination and/or infection,” Calderwood said. “Our focus at Dartmouth Health at this time is getting the most people up-to-date with vaccination while hoping that we don’t experience another winter surge. The bivalent booster vaccines are highly effective against the contagious Omicron strain and are another critical tool in the fight against COVID-19. I hope that people who tune into my conversation with Dr. Kraft will walk away with a better understanding of how vaccines work and how important it is to keep up with boosters to keep COVID-19 at bay.”
To attend the webinar, visit the event's Zoom link on Tuesday, October 11, at 4 pm.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and largest private employer, serves patients across New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,300 providers in nearly every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH. Its network of hospitals, outpatient centers, clinics and home care facilities, spans a broad geographical area. Year after year, DHMC is named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is consistently recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, northern New England’s only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers and one of less than than 60 total nationally; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital (Children’s Hospital at DHMC/CHaD) and more than 20 locations around the region; eight member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont, Hampstead, and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Dartmouth Health Home Care; Dartmouth Health Connected Care Center for Telehealth, serving patients as far away as Texas; and more than 30 primary and multi-specialty clinics across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its partnership with Dartmouth College, Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine and the White River Junction VA Medical Center, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials with international impact. Dartmouth Health and its more than 16,000 employees are committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in the communities it serves and to providing every patient with exceptional, state-of-the-art, personalized care. Learn more at dartmouth-health.org.