Don’t fret if your 2nd vaccine dose is delayed
Memphis expert says extension to 6 weeks is OK if necessary
With COVID-19 vaccine appointments delayed into next week and thousands of people in Shelby County waiting on their second doses, a member of the Memphis and Shelby County taskforce said the delay would not be a major set-back to vaccination efforts.
Dr. Manoj Jain, a member of the Memphis and Shelby County COVID-19 task-force said that the public should not worry too much if they go longer than three to four weeks between their first and second dose of COVID-19 vaccines.
Jain, an infectious disease specialist who works in the Baptist hospital system, said the delays likely won’t have a negative effect on those waiting to receive their second dose of a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine.
“It really is OK to not have the vaccine given at a three-week or a fourweek interval,” Jain said. “Extending it to six weeks is OK from what the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] is telling us.”
If the interval between doses reaches longer than six weeks, there isn’t clear guidance from the CDC on what to do, Jain said, but he is not worried that people won’t be protected from severe disease and illness.
“Honestly from the scientific perspective, we don’t have a lot of evidence,” Jain said. “What we do know is, at present, even if you’re beyond the six weeks, the CDC is not recommending restarting... There isn’t a great deal of concern from my end as an infectious disease doctor.
I do believe the one shot will be sufficient to protect people from serious illness, which is actually what we’re looking for. If you have a mild illness, that’s OK. Yes, we also want the virus not to be transmissible, but avoiding serious illness, hospitalization and, obviously, death is what we’re looking for. From some of the literature I’ve looked at, one shot should be very helpful for that.”
Vaccinations haven’t been completely derailed during the winter storm. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said the department, once it realized it had 1,200 doses at risk of expiring Sunday afternoon, allocated 900 to Shelby County Schools and 300 to the municipal district.
SCS used 631 of the shots. Wednesday, municipal school leaders scheduled appointments for about 560 doses, with most going to municipal teachers and some going to private school teachers. Officials did not say whether the doses used Wednesday by the municipal schools were the doses left over from the Monday allocation to Shelby County Schools.
“None of the doses that were taken from storage for events this week have had to be discarded at this time,” SCHD spokeswoman Joan Carr said in an email Wednesday evening.
Commercial Appeal reporter Laura Testino contributed to this report.
Samuel Hardiman is a watchdog reporter who covers Memphis City Hall, politics and the pandemic response for The Commercial Appeal. He can be reached by email at samuel.hardiman@commercialappeal.com or followed on Twitter at @samhardiman.