We had to wait after our first two doses, which I think is a good idea. We are getting our boosters next week at same pharmacy, so I'll imagine they will have us wait again.

We were advised to not have our flu vaccines and booster at the same time, although we were told it wouldn't hurt us, but could make it harder. Our dr. advised a two week wait between.

We had to wait after booster and after flu shot. I always comply because I have gotten light headed after some vaccines.

Yes, I mixed. I had 2 Pfizers 6 mo ago and got a Moderna booster yesterday. I felt fine yesterday but am verrry tired and sickly today. Lots of naps and a tough time getting warm.

Had first Moderna January 26. 2nd 4 weeks later and booster tomorrow. Doc said mix and match for better coverage and get it before the holidays, around here that's also when we start getting cold. She also said I might feel crummy the next day. I teach, so I have a sub in place ;^)

I got Moderna shots Feb & March 8, and I developed a severe rash on my back, legs, and feet about five days after the first Moderna shot. The rash was extremely painful and unlike anything I've ever experienced before, but the effects started to diminish slightly after two weeks, and by the beginning of March, they were mostly gone. The rash returned five days after my second Moderna shot, but not nearly as bad as the first rash.

I told the administrator about the first rash when I got the second shot, and they told me to wait half an hour instead of 15 minutes, and this caused me to have to pay $25 for parking, as all of the free parking spots had been taken. I got a free spot for my first shot, and so I was not too upset about this.

I saw my doctor on Monday (two days ago), and he told me to get the booster as soon as possible, but he told me to get the Pfizer booster, since I had a bad reaction to the Moderna shots. I had no fever or any other symptoms after my Moderna shots other than the severe and extremely painful rash. I was unable to go to s doctor after I had the rash because we went to Cathedral City the week-end after I got the shot, since my supplementary insurance is not valid outside of the UCLA network, and that network is only in Los Angeles and Orange Counties - not Riverside County. Anyway, I went to my regular doctor as soon as I got back to L.A., and he prescribed some cream for the rash that had mostly gone away on its own by then, four weeks later. However, I was able to use the cream when the rash reappeared after my second Moderna shot.

The reaction I had to the Moderna shot is not common but is also not an isolated case. In any event, the rash was much less than the effects I could have experienced from the virus, and so I have no regrets in getting the vaccine, although in hindsight, I think I should have gotten Pfizer. At the time, I was not given a choice, but for the booster shot, I do have a choice, and so I have made an appointment to get a Pfizer booster in Redondo Beach next Tuesday, which is the earliest date available. One good thing is that the facility in RB has free parking, unlike Santa Monica or Westwood, where the parking costs from $14 to $25. There is a facility in Marina Del Rey (the closest one to me) that has free parking, but they do not have any available appointments.

My doctor told me to get the booster as soon as possible, and I've heard this from other sources. I think there are going to be additional booster shots in the future, much like annual flu shots.

I received my flu shot on Monday, and I had delayed that because I had heard that if you get the flu shots too soon, you won't be protected for the entire season. My doctor told me that he recommended getting the flu shots in October rather than September, and I got mine on Nov 1, which I think is soon enough.

I think unless this virus in time mutates itself into oblivion, if that's possible, annual or twice a year boosters are going to be the drill.

As far as mix and match, I think data to this point shows that the two mRNA flavors (Pfizer and Moderna) are more effective than the others, and Moderna slightly more effective and longer lasting than Pfizer. I can understand someone whose first drink from the fountain was Pfizer wanting to get a Moderna booster but I'm not sure why going in the opposite direction would be of interest.

The differences are statistically valid but not huge. I wonder if the "mix or match" comment is a way of the public health authorities to try to spread out demand between the two more effective choices rather than just one.

When I made my booster appointment, I was asked which I wanted and I stuck with Moderna, as I got the first time. .

There is a large provider on the West Coast that originated in California after WW 2 that's an odd duck - it's both an insurance company and a healthcare provider rolled into one. They've long been the lowest cost provider of healthcare and if you grade them on that, they do a good job. You pay them a monthly fee and they cover all your health care needs, with them determining what those needs are. An obvious conflict and not surprisingly, the horror stories and malpractice issues suffereed by its patients are legendary. The name is Kaiser Permanente.

A friend who's a retired government worker has Kaiser and contacted them about the booster. This person was unable to get the original, two dose treatment from Kaiser earlier in the year because Kaiser was seemingly in "go-slow" mode so she got her two jabs earlier from a chain pharmacy. Anyway, she called them about a booster last week and was told " We will be administering the three main vaccines as boosters and you're welcome to submit your preference but unfortunately, what you get will depend on what is available on the day at the site you go to".. Not wanting to hear that nonsense, she got the Moderna booster she wanted at her neighborhood CVS. It was free, of course.

A recent newsletter from our provider stated that mixing and matching is fine. I was all set to get Moderna having gotten Covid w/Pfizer, but now I'm seeing that the Moderna booster is half-strength which has me re-thinking whether that's the route I want to go.

My DH is a longtime family practice physician, recently retired. He says that 6-9 months after your last Covid vaccine is a good time to get your booster. We both are set to get ours this month sometime.

I'm seeing that the Moderna booster is half-strength which has me re-thinking whether that's the route I want to go.

But it's still a stronger dose than Pfizer. The original Moderna dose was 100 mg, and the Pfizer is 30 mg. So the Moderna booster is 50 mg.

I'm leaning towards asking for the Moderna.

Wow, I had a totally different experience with Kaiser and vaccines and boosters. Moderna vaccine (no choice), very efficient and professional clinic for both. I got my booster today (Moderna), they asked which I preferred - I know they also had Pfizer, not sure if there was any other choice.
Again, a very well run clinic; I have no complaints. I also got my flu shot there a couple of weeks ago; had the choice of the stronger dose for seniors or a regular dose.

Yes, Moderna is stronger at 50mg. I started with Moderna and got the booster on Saturday. It's now 4 days and I'm still not feeling well. Really sore arm but low-grade fever since the shot.

I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow.

Jane

I got my booster in August. Pfizer x3. I'm with Kaiser and in February they were very short on stock so I got my first two from another organization. Now Kaiser seems to have vaccine in abundance.

Last month I got my annual flu shot. I've been getting them annually for decades and I don't see why people blanch at the idea of an annual Covid shot in perpetuity. Twice a year? Sign me up.

Can a link(s) be provided to confirm the above information? Thx.

Jane's post concerns me. I'm scheduled for today for the M dose and I'm six months out from my last dose. Should I wait?

@llitm this article gives some info.boosters

Everyone seems to react differently Eileen, Both VgQn and I had little reaction to our M boosters (on top of 2 M shots 6 months ago) other than a sore arm. The M booster is half strength. I had a more intense reaction to my 65+ flu shot 1 week earlier, but even that faded after 48 hours.

I had zero reaction from my Modrna booster except for a sore arm I blame on the guy administering it. I did not get the senior flu with the booster but I read you can. Mine were two weeks apart. No reaction to the flu shot either. Of all four shots, the only reaction was the second Moderna and that was a piece of cake with just aches and a fever for a few hours and then I was fine.

I just made an appointment to get the booster next Thursday at Walgreens. That will be exactly 2 weeks since I got the flu shot.

I have that Friday schedule off from work to head to the lake for opening weekend of deer season so I hope the side affects don't hit me too hard. I felt a little off the next morning after the second jab back in April.

I’m overdue for a booster. Last Moderna shot was in early Feb. Going to ask my nurse to give me another Moderna next time she’s on a shift with me.

I'm wondering why some of you think it's meaningful to compare the fluid contents of one single injection from different manufacturers? Only so if the concentrations in each vaccine (as with Moderna vs Pfizer) are the same, and I can't imagine why they would be.

The dosage of each is calibrated to produce the intended result. The results are comparable, I think going beyond that is random. I don't think you can compare them, they're different.

I sent a message to my doctor, and she said that she thinks that everyone should get a booster when they are 6 months out, and that I should schedule an appointment. I have one scheduled for December 17th. I probably can get one sooner somewhere else, but I have that appointment set if I don't find an earlier time.

I'm glad you got that worked out terezosa and advice that was meant for you specifically. I hadn't heard of people having to wait any length of time at different clinics or drug store pharmacies....but, with grade school aged children being added to the eligible now this week that could change I suppose. We're still feeling fine from our Moderna boosters on Tuesday. DH did sit down in the middle of an otherwise productive day yesterday and slept for about an hour in his chair, said he just ran out of steam. But then he put on a jacket and went out and washed his truck, so the 'being tired' didn't last long.

I'm already boosted. Did you see the newest worry? Go now, because you have two weeks to get protection going

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-delta-plus-variant-ay-4-2-states/#app

Nothing about that non-news would impact my actions at alll

Lonejack, if you’re getting a Moderna booster, realize it’s likely you will not feel great the next day. I’m thinking of your drive.

sjerin - I'll be getting the Pfizer booster. When I scheduled it on Walgreen's website they had a blurb on there about the CDC recommending that the booster should be the same as the first 2 rounds. When I entered that I had gotten Pfizer the website steered me to only the stores that offered Pfizer.

The drive is only a couple hours and I don't need to leave first thing in the morning but thanks for the warning.

Yesterday's day-after-the-booster-event was a non-event for me. My arm was a little sore and I felt lazy but that could just as easily be the gray, cold day. It's cold and gray again today and I just might spend the day reading on the couch. Yup, definitely a booster induced reading day.

"Yup, definitely a booster induced reading day."

Oh, I like that excuse!! Can I still use it 2 weeks after receiving my booster?? 😁

Interesting about Walgreens. Walgreens is an outlier with that blurb that the CDC recommends the 3rd booster be the same as the first two. The other vaccine dispensaries I checked permitted making an appointment for the vaccine of my choice.

By all means gardengal - my excuse is your excuse!

Glad you got some advice @terezosa / terriks! Here appointments are plentiful. I could go today if I wanted. I'm wondering if pharmacies will administer children's shots or if that will be mainly done in their dr's offices?

My daughters, husband and I have reached our 6-month post fully vaccinated mark, but we are not currently eligible for booster based on current guidelines. We are all under 65 and fit none of the other categories. So we will patiently wait. My girls and I had Pfizer, dh had Moderna. We will talk to our doctors about which boosters we will eventually get.

My sons are both eligible as they both had J&J. However, one of them, despite being fully vaccinated, tested positive for both Covid and the flu at the same time, two weeks after he arrived on his campus at the end of August. Other son had asymptomatic Covid in July 2020. I’ll be talking to their doctor when they both come home from college to see what she recommends WRT boosters for them.

<Walgreens is an outlier with that blurb that the CDC recommends the 3rd booster be the same as the first two.>

The CDC does not recommend that the booster be the same as the first if you (as I did) had a severe reaction with the first two. I think my case was rare, but it does happen, and so my doctor recommended that I switch for the booster.

Direct quote from CDC:

"Choosing Your COVID-19 Booster Shot

You may choose which COVID-19 vaccine you receive as a booster shot. Some people may have a preference for the vaccine type that they originally received, and others may prefer to get a different booster. CDC’s recommendations now allow for this type of mix and match dosing for booster shots."

We’re getting the same one we had for dose 1 and 2 - no logical reason to pick something else. DH had his Moderna yesterday - some aches and pains treated with acetaminophen. I get my Pfizer on Tuesday.

@4kids4us, my husband and I are in the same situation. Everywhere I tried to sign up, our age was the deciding negative factor. CVS doesn't ask that - so we are scheduled for our boosters on Monday with them. All they wanted to know was what vaccine we wanted and when was our last shot.

4kids, my son got the booster and he's 47. No questions asked. We both went to Publix and just walked in. There were 4 people ahead of us. I thought for sure they would not vaccinate my son but they never asked him why he was getting it. I thought that was strange but my neighbor said her 36 yr old daughter got boosted at CVS with no questions asked.

Jane

Same for me at CVS.

I went to a Kroger pharmacy yesterday for the boost. My second Moderna was in March. I was asked why I qualified for the booster but didn't need to provide documentation.

It was my third Moderna. I feel fine today except for a little arm soreness. I felt terrible after my second Moderna so I was really dreading it.

DH and I got our Moderna booster yesterday. Our 1st and 2nd were March and April. We were dreading the side effects due to how crappy we felt after the 1st and the 2nd. So far so good. We have sore arms and a little bit of body aches but that's it. Hoping we are good the rest of the day.

Truthfully we were on the fence about getting the booster but DH found out the other day that a friend of his who he worked with in the past died of Covid. He was 57. We made our appointments for the booster 2 days later. We do not know if he was vaccinated or not.

"Same for me at CVS."

sjerin, aren't you a Kaiser Permanente member? If yes, it sounds like you just like our friend wanted better service than Kaiser provides (as I described above) and went to a retail pharmacy instead.

I had a Pfizer booster shot on Tuesday (Nov 9) and felt okay for the rest of the day, but on Wednesday I was feeling very dizzy, and the dizziness lasted through Thursday, although it was not as bad as Wednesday. Friday the dizziness was gone, but my eyes were burning and watering, and this got worse on Saturday and Sunday (yesterday)

I thought my eyes were reacting to something in the air, since I was spending more time outside picking apples from our tree, but then I looked up side effects from the Pfizer shots and found out that a fair number of people have experienced burning eyes as I have, although it seems to have been worse for these people after the first and second Pfizer shots.

My eyes are still red and burning today, but this has not interfered with my sleep, and it is not nearly as bad or painful as the rash I got after getting the Moderna shots. That rash lasted for two weeks after the first shot and about a week to ten days after the second shot, although the rash was not as severe after the second shot.

I'm using eye drops now, and they help, but I have to use them every four hours or so.

These side effects are minor considering what I could experience if I got Covid, and I have a feeling that if I did get Covid that I would get a particularly bad case, since I react so strongly to the vaccines. That is speculation on my part however.

I will be very happy when almost everyone has been vaccinated and when this gets under control.

One thing I've read is that if you have a reaction to the vaccine, it means that the vaccine is working, and so there's that.

I got my Pfizer booster on Friday from Walgreens. (my first and second shots were in March and April). I'm in my mid 50's and checked off that I'm was in a high risk group(self assessed risk). No questions from the pharmacy, and I just signed off the attestation form that I was in that group. My husband is immunocompromised, and there are too many people around here going maskless again, which makes me nervous and consider that to be a high risk.

We are invited to get our boosters at the 6 month mark and we have the same one as the first two, providing there are no contraindications. Anyone over 40 is currently eligible for a booster plus younger vulnerable people. We could have booked an appointment but we got ours yesterday at our local walk-in centre. It doesn't matter where you get your jab because it is immediately linked to your health record so your doctor knows you've had it. We just showed the admin our online health record on our phones so they could see who we were and when we had our previous vaccinations. The nurse I spoke to said they had 760 booked that morning (8 - 12) plus at least double that of walk ins. But they were getting through them very efficiently with lots of staff and volunteers. It was incredibly well organised with everyone channelled in, id checked, given a coloured card showing which vaccine we were to get, a brief medical interview with a nurse, another id check, the jab itself and a timed, supervised 15 minute wait in a holding area. Then a lovely walk home across country and lunch.

We had our booster on Friday at Walgreens also. Like Daki, we were getting past the 6 month mark. They do a good job and because I have a walgreens account, I could do my paperwork on line and it was there ready and waiting when we got our shots. The Mr. had no problems at all except a slight headache the next morning - but he was also painting, so who knows? I felt fine, but this time my arm swelled and then I had a smaller swelled place that was marble size, right around the injection. It was hard, hot and hurt if you touched it, but didn't bother me otherwise. I feel better having had the booster.

I had mine last Tuesday too. I woke up exactly 12 hours later shaking like a leaf and feeling kind of crummy - didn't feel like dragging myself out of bed to check for a fever or take some acetaminophen. After an hour of that I got up and took some but I could barely get the bottle open I was shaking so bad. Checked my temp and it was up a couple degrees. Within an hour of taking the meds the shaking stopped and I finally got back to sleep. Tired the next day but I think mostly because I didn't get enough sleep the night before. I remember having a similar reaction the first time around.

DH and I got the Moderna booster last Wed. (our original was J&J) Ugh, we both felt like carp until today! I still have that vague sore-throat-am-I-getting-sick feeling, but much better than I felt Thurs-Sat. DH talked to a dr today who said it’s important to drink a LOT of water before and after. We both tend to drink a lot of water in general, but maybe we needed to double our intake.

We are getting ours on Friday. I have a small company holiday party coming up and I think most people are vaccinated but I want to be as safe as possible.

Just to be clear, the booster was the 2nd Moderna or Pfizer vaccine. So, are you talking about the 2nd booster? Even though, I think Fauci erroneously talks about the 3rd being "the Booster".

My doctor's advice if you get even the vaccine, and especially the boosters-is to make sure to already be on a fish oil and then a couple of days before and after the boosters, take baby aspirin, to decrease the inflammatory pathways, in case you are one of the unlucky ones to unknowingly have inflammation in your heart causing heart problems and even heart attacks-as long as you ARE NOT allergic to fish oil or aspirin, or have a contraindication. AND, of course, if you are pregnant you should not take aspirin.

In Ontario, Canada we can't even ask for an appointment until we are at least 168 days from our second vaccine - so no scheduling of appointments now and of course it depends on vaccine availability. We also had to wait 14 weeks between our first and second doses. We are post 70 but do not fit into any of the categories ahead of us except that we are post 70 - the bottom of the list. We are concerned that come Jan. when they add another age group to the list that we will have a hard time finding appointments. I will be on the website come Dec. 6 but am not optimistic based on shot the difficulty in scheduling shot #2.

We did luck out on the high-dose flu shot. We were in the pharmacy picking up my husband's prescription and they had it so we took it. In Canada high-dose vaccines last year ran out in Nov. (flu shots didn't even start until mid Oct.) so many had to get the "weaker" strain. We both had minor reactions to the flu shot this year but none for our 2 doses of Pfizer. And, we always wait the 20 minutes. When we had our second Covid shot the pharmacy clerk kept our OHIP cards until our 20 minutes was up. Of course I was looking for my card because this was the first time that this had happened. I always wait, particularly since I know someone who didn't and had a major reaction on the street.