Vaccinations

[jeffk]

Originally Posted by SailinAway

Schedule for 2nd Pfizer dose

CDC: "You should get your second shot as close to the recommended [Pfizer] 3-week or [Moderna] 4-week interval as possible. However, your second dose may be given up to 6 weeks (42 days) after the first dose, if necessary. You should not get the second dose early. ​There is currently limited information on the effectiveness of receiving your second shot earlier than recommended or later than 6 weeks after the first shot."

In Plymouth they scheduled my 2nd Pfizer dose exactly 4 weeks after the 1st dose, even though there are earlier appointments available. Walgreens was chastised by the CDC for the same practice and they stopped doing it. I wonder why the Plymouth site is doing this. I'm not saying any harm was done, I'm just wondering why they wouldn't follow the recommended interval.

My bet it that it is purely logistics. When they give people either Pfizer or Moderna, they schedule the 2nd shot 4 weeks out. If they didn't do this, Pfizer 2nd doses at 3 weeks would start happening at the same time as Moderna 2nd doses at 4 week intervals. They don't have the facility space or staff to do double duty. Since it doesn't seem that the time window is critical at 3 weeks, it's just a lot easier to do it this way.

[SailinAway]

Originally Posted by jeffk

My bet it that it is purely logistics. When they give people either Pfizer or Moderna, they schedule the 2nd shot 4 weeks out. If they didn't do this, Pfizer 2nd doses at 3 weeks would start happening at the same time as Moderna 2nd doses at 4 week intervals. They don't have the facility space or staff to do double duty. Since it doesn't seem that the time window is critical at 3 weeks, it's just a lot easier to do it this way.

That is exactly what Walgreen's claimed, and why they were reprimanded by the CDC and have now changed that practice.