HyVee’s chief doctor recommends getting COVID vaccine

MASON CITY — As we head into the month of November, people should be thinking about making sure they have an updated COVID vaccine.

HyVee chief medical officer Dr. Daniel Fick says it’s not a booster this year, it’s actually a new vaccine. “It’s going after a different strain of the Omicron virus that is circulating. There were certain strains that they had and we were all boosted. This is totally different, so the virus is constantly changing and mutating. This vaccine will protect you from what’s currently circulating there.”

Fick says being vaccinated will help protect you from severe COVID-related illness.  “The nice thing about a COVID vaccine is it will help protect you and the ones around you, but you don’t have all the sickness. Long COVID is a thing, and you certainly don’t want to put your body at risk by waiting to get the virus, having all the sickness that goes with it, and then not getting as good immunity.”

Fick says COVID vaccines are safe to get.   “We’ve given them to a billion people around the world. It’s a safe vaccine, it works. It will boost your immunity much higher than if you got the infection, and then you don’t have all the disadvantages of having it, feeling sick, and spreading it to others.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends everyone ages six months and older should get a COVID vaccine.