order of vaccinations

[RZ8983DV]

I had a relatively mild form of COVID in August which cleared up in a week with Paxlovid. My surgery is doing the flu vaccination on 8 Oct and I can have the 2nd shingles vaccination anytime after 21 September. Meanwhile the over 50s are being offered a COVID booster, but I suppose having had the infection I should wait a for weeks for that. Which order should I have the shots and should I space them out with at least a week between them or should I have 2 of them in one go?

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator]

I'm not aware of any guidance with respect to the shingles vaccination. I would hope it's Shingrix as Zostavax is not recommended for immune compromised folk, which includes those with CLL. Given some of us have reported being fairly debilitated for a day or so after the Shingrix shots, I would suggest it would be best to have that separately and a time when you can have the next couple of days off to recover. (Trust me any debilitation for a couple of days pales when compared to actually having shingles.)

Side effects from the flu and COVID-19 booster shots are generally reported as mild and having them at the same time has been recommended in the USA. However, it you've had a strong reaction to either in the past or are uncertain, schedule them apart.

Neil

[RZ8983DV in reply to AussieNeil]

It is Shngrix and on the first dose I only had a sore arm for a couple of days

[SofiaDeo]

My preference is to minimize giving them together, in case I react to one of them, how would I know which one I reacted to? I can't recall ever reacting to a flu shot, or Covid, but had an extremely sore arm for days after the pneumonia one. But if getting to the doc giving them is difficult and time consuming, one may want to consider it. I am not sure there is hard data but the official DC guidelines say adults can get them together. It's under the "simultaneous administration" section below:

cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-r...

There's no mention whether the above is true, or ideal, for us immune compromised.

The section dealing with immune compromised folk doesn't really address this question well IMO:

cdc.gov/vaccines/hcp/acip-r...

This 2011 free article talk about the pros and cons in immune compromised, but not CLL specifically, more toward the autoimmune inflammatory disease states:

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/213...

[Astro617]

I just read an article that said we can wait 2-3 months after having COVID before getting a booster. I like to have my vaccines one at a time and wait 4 weeks in between. I'd like to give my immune system a good fighting chance with each vaccination. I don't think the order matters except for what urgency you feel. I just had Tdap. I'll get the flu shot in early October and my Omicron booster in early November. (I just had a COVID booster in late July. And I live a pretty isolated life.) npr.org/sections/science/

[RZ8983DV]

I am inclined to wait a week between each one As I had COVID in the week of 15 August I should wait until mid October for the Omicron booster. I wonder whether the Shingrix and flu vaccination can be done at the same time by the surgery