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There is a lot of confusion about second doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
The deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine has been chaotic in California. Advice on how to get the second dose changed from ‘you need to make your own appointment’ to ‘we’ll tell you when to come back’ to ‘OK you should hear from us, but if you don’t, come back. . ”The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health admitted on Twitter that he had been stressful.
People are also concerned about the timing of the second dose. More at LA Times Advice Line, we receive inquiries about second dose appointments that are not precisely timed after the first.
In its clinical trials, Pfizer administered the second dose 21 days after the first. For Moderna, it was 28 days. According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the second dose should be given as close to the recommended date as possible. But full precision is not required.
If it’s a bit earlier, it’s ok: “Second doses given within a four-day grace period before the recommended second dose date are still considered valid,” the CDC says on its website.
A few weeks later, that’s good too. “If it is not possible to meet the recommended interval and a delay in vaccination is unavoidable, the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines can be administered for up to six weeks (42 days ) after the first dose. “
Dr. Diane Griffin is a virologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who studies immune responses to viral infections and vaccines. She said in an interview with The Times that although there are no studies on the effectiveness of these vaccines when the second dose is not given on time, based on what we know about other vaccines and immune responses, there is no reason. will not work as well.
“I think perfection is the enemy of good,” she says.
In other words: don’t worry if your second dose is a little early or late. The important thing is that you get it.
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Editor Amina Khan contributed to this report.
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