Since the COVID vaccine began to be administered in late December, we have all been told that following the recommended schedule between the first and the second dose is the key to obtaining 95% total protection against the virus. But with the vaccine launching in the midst of winter storms that have caused delays in vaccine shipments and temporary shutdowns at vaccination sites, this is not always possible. If you are concerned about not being able to get your second injection of your COVID vaccine exactly 21 days after your first dose of Pfizer or 28 days after your first dose of Moderna, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has some new advice you need to follow. “You should not take your second dose before the recommended interval”, advises the agency. Read on to find out what you should or shouldn’t do if you are unable to meet the recommended vaccination schedule and, for more guidance on how to get the vaccines, know that the CDC says that you should not do this within 2 weeks of your vaccine to the covid.
The CDC says that you have a “grace period” if it is absolutely necessary to receive your second dose early.
In its guidance to doctors who administer the vaccine, the CDC clearly states: “People should not be scheduled to receive the second dose earlier than recommended (ie, 3 weeks [Pfizer-BioNTech] or 1 month [Moderna]). “However, if you are in a situation where it is absolutely necessary to get your second injection earlier, the agency says that you have a grace period of a few days.” Second doses administered within a 4-day grace period before the recommended date for the second dose are still considered valid “, says the CDC guidance.
However, if for some reason you get your second injection even before that (before 17 days for Pfizer or 24 for Moderna), it does not mean that you need to restart the process. “Doses administered inadvertently before the grace period should not be repeated,” says the CDC. And to learn more about what is not right to do after the injection, do not do it until a month after your COVID vaccine, experts warn.
Later it may be better than before when it comes to the second dose.
Of course, “sooner than ever” applies to the second dose of COVID vaccines as well; but also “better after than before,” according to the CDC and other medical experts. Diane Griffin, MD, virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told the Los Angeles Times that she “personally would choose a few days earlier”.
“Your immune response will work perfectly well if you take longer,” William Schaffner, MD, medical director of the National Infectious Diseases Foundation, told AARP. “But if you do it too early, the second dose may not trigger an ideal response.”
At Walgreens, where Rina Shah As vice president of the pharmaceutical operations and services group, “patients can receive the second dose, as long as it follows the immunization window” – the keyword is “follow”, as Shah told NBC News. “We encourage patients to schedule a second dose appointment as close to the appropriate date as possible, but a little later it is OK,” said Shah. And if you want to take a chance at your local Walgreens pharmacy, make sure you live in these states, you can now be vaccinated at Walgreens.
The CDC says you can wait up to six weeks to get your second injection, if necessary.
According to the CDC, “If it is not feasible to adhere to the recommended interval and a delay in vaccination is unavoidable, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can be administered up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose . “
The CDC says there is limited data on the effectiveness of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines given beyond a six-week window. However, once again, the agency warns that “if the second dose is administered beyond these intervals, there is no need to restart the series”. And for more COVID news delivered straight to your inbox, sign up for our daily newsletter.
But even if it’s after six weeks, there’s no harm in getting that second injection.
“You should do your second injection as close as possible to the recommended interval of 3 weeks or 1 month,” says the CDC. “However, there is no maximum interval between the first and the second dose for any of the vaccines.” That is, even if it is more than six weeks, you should still do the second injection.
Buddy Creech, MD, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tennessee, oversaw clinical trials for the Modern vaccine. According to what he saw, the vaccine should work even if its second dose is delayed more than recommended by the CDC. Creech told NBC News that people “shouldn’t panic” if they have to increase the interval by 21 or 28 days between doses. “Even if it takes four, six, eight weeks before receiving the second dose, everything is fine from the point of view of the immune system,” said Creech.
Thomas Denny, chief of operations at the Duke Human Vaccine Institute, said Scientific American that it all comes down to the duration of the clinical trials, which were shorter for the vaccine to be approved and administered to the public as soon as possible. “You could have done dosage studies for two years, but that wouldn’t be the most responsible thing to do in a world like this,” said Denny. “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” And to learn more about what to expect from your vaccination, find out why the CDC claims that these three side effects mean your vaccine is working.