Smart Patients Get Smart Care™

The World’s Leading Authority for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia Patients

Should I start over and get the Moderna vaccine?

This content was current as of the date it was released. In science and medicine, information is constantly changing and may become out-of-date as new data emerge.

Ask the Doctor Question:

I received two shots of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine in April, but recently tested negative for the antibodies by my oncologist.  I can now get a third booster shot, but given I have no immunity and The Pfizer vaccine looks less effective against the Delta variant, I would prefer to start over and get two Moderna vaccine shots.  Is this advisable, possible, and how would one do it if the government is tracking, and presumably restricting, the vaccine doses?

Answer: To our knowledge, there is no centralized government tracking of who gets the COVID vaccine or when. Just individual pharmacies/health departments who have to keep track of patient information records. For instance, CVS would have no knowledge or way to pull-up in a database whether you received the vaccine previously at Walgreens. There is some centralization/tracking in other countries, but not in the US. The caveat to that might be that if you provided your health insurance information when you received the first shots, then your insurance company would have those records as well.

We would also encourage you to take a look at a couple of the articles we just wrote on the boosters. There is an official statement on the COVID-19 boosters for CLL patients, as well as answers to some of the most common questions we have been receiving in a question‑and‑answer document. Here are the links for both of those articles: