Walgreens is changing how it schedules some COVID-19 vaccines. Here’s what to know
Patients who get the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Walgreens will now receive the second dose a week sooner.
The pharmacy chain has been scheduling people to receive the second dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — both of which require two shots to be fully effective — for roughly four weeks, or 28 days, after they received their first dose.
But guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend spacing the Pfizer doses only 21 days apart — prompting frustration and confusion from some.
What’s changing?
This week, Walgreens is changing its scheduling system to be in line with federal guidelines and to allow patients to book appointments for their second Pfizer dose in the “three-week timeframe,” Walgreens spokesperson Fraser Engerman told McClatchy News in an email.
“We have been automatically scheduling patients’ second doses to occur a minimum of 28 days following their first dose to ensure that no dose is administered earlier than the authorized intervals and patients are able to complete the series vaccination,” Engerman said.
Those who receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine will not see a scheduling change. The CDC recommends a 28-day gap between the two doses.
Walgreens did not respond to a question from the Chicago Tribune about whether people who already have an appointment for the second Pfizer vaccine will be able to reschedule for an earlier date. But the chain told NBC Chicago that people have the option to reschedule appointments online or by calling their local store.
What if I got the second Pfizer dose four weeks apart?
Kate Grusich, a CDC spokesperson, told The New York Times that the agency requested that Walgreens stop scheduling second doses further out than recommended.
But those who received the second dose of the Pfizer vaccine more than three weeks after the first dose shouldn’t worry as long as they received it within six weeks.
“You should get your second shot as close to the recommended 3-week or 4-week interval as possible,” the CDC says. “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.”
Those who receive the vaccine earlier or later than recommended do not need to “restart the vaccine series,” according to the CDC.
Complaints about the scheduling
Some people who received the Pfizer vaccine from Walgreens were frustrated to be receiving the second dose later than necessary.
“I’m not happy about it,” Mary DeTurris Poust from New York told the Times. “It gives me one extra week of not being protected, so it means there’s one more week that I’m worried about catching it from someone, or giving it to someone.”
Others expressed similar frustrations in comments on the company’s Facebook posts.
Some experts were also upset with Walgreens’ scheduling.
“It is not the role of a private, for-profit company to make public health decisions that should be determined by guidelines issued by a public health authority,” Lawrence Gostin, a global health law professor at Georgetown University, told the NYT.
But Engerman told McClatchy that Walgreens has “worked closely with the CDC, federal, state and local government officials on COVID-19 vaccine distribution from the outset, and this includes recommended scheduling intervals for all vaccines.”
Walgreens is one of the biggest providers of the COVID-19 vaccine among pharmacy and store chains, the Times reports. The company said last week it has administered more than 8 million doses, including 4 million in March.
This story was originally published April 6, 2021 at 9:19 AM with the headline "Walgreens is changing how it schedules some COVID-19 vaccines. Here’s what to know."
