There is a lot of confusion out there about second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine was chaotic in California. The guidance on how to get the second dose has changed from “you need to make your own appointment” to “we will tell you when to return” to “OK, you need to hear from us, but if you do not , just come back. ” The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health acknowledged on Twitter that it was stressful.
People are also worried about the timing of the second dose. Over at the LA Times tiplyn, we get inquiries about two-dose appointments that are not scheduled exactly after the first time.
In its clinical trials, Pfizer administered the second dose 21 days after the first dose. For Moderna it was 28 days. According to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the second dose should be administered as close as possible to the recommended date. But total precision is not necessary.
If it is a little earlier, it is allowed: “Second doses administered within a grace period of four days earlier than the recommended date for the second dose are still considered valid,” the CDC said on its website.
A few weeks later it’s fine too. “If it is not possible to comply with the recommended interval, and a delay in vaccination is unavoidable, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines may be administered up to six weeks (42 days) after the first dose. word. “
Dr. Diane Griffin is a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health studying immune responses to viral infections and vaccinations. She said in an interview with The Times that although there are no studies on the efficacy of these vaccines if the second dose is not administered according to schedule, based on what we do know about other vaccines and immune responses, there is no reason will not work just as well.
“I think perfection is the enemy of the good,” she said.
In other words: Do not stress that your second dose is a little early or late. The most important thing is that you get it.
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Staff Writer Amina Khan contributed to this report.