Adding to the anecdotes. One woman undergoing BC chemo treatment told me the same thing. Her Moderna booster was not as bad as her second shot.
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I’m a little confused about the timing of the booster shot. I just read that people should wait at least 6 months after the second dose to get the booster. My daughter is on immune-compromising meds and we have scheduled her booster for this afternoon. However, she is two weeks shy of 6 months. Is the 6 month marker an administrative or scientific decision?
My opinion would be to get the booster. Effectiveness seems to wane between 5 and 6 months and being immune-compromised makes it worse.
Scientific data shows 6 months
I have a message in to her doctor, but these responses highlights how much confusion there is around all of this. 
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Israel is making people wait 5 months. The US says 6 months. I’m not sure if it’s a scientific or an administrative decision.
Is it waning immunity that everyone seems to be talking about, or is it because Delta showed up about 6 months after health care workers and elderly people got their vaccines, that is the main factor behind more breakthrough infections?
It may be the case that better protection against Delta would require one more dose of vaccine (or, better yet, if there was a Delta vaccine), but that is a different reason for getting another dose than if immunity drops to nothing in 6 months that people seem to believe.
One more dose of vaccine may be helpful to the immunocompromised or otherwise medically vulnerable even if it were still Alpha instead of Delta. But that is also different from the waning immunity that people seem to be believing in at the main problem.
Take your pick. Boosters seem to help those who are older, immune compromised, and have high exposure. I don’t think many care too much about the specifics of why.
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I think it was Pfizer’s data that said 6 months they noticed a drop-off in effectiveness
The specifics matter in terms of, do you need to get a booster every 6 months (or other relatively short time) even if there are no new variants, or is the one extra dose sufficient for longer term protection?
However, wasn’t this drop in effectiveness happening while Delta was replacing Alpha? Indeed, this note at https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMc2112981 suggests that the drop in effectiveness has a lot to do with Delta replacing Alpha.
Based on my own personal data and the data in our lab, there is waning immunity around 5-6 months.
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And this can be determined as we move through another 6 months. People who might be affected have to make booster decisions before we have all the answers.
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Is she moderately or severely immunocompromised? These are the guidelines for those folks: COVID-19 Vaccines for People Who Are Moderately or Severely Immunocompromised | CDC
I am by no means an expert, but I am of the opinion that we will see waning immunity and require yearly boosters, with each being updated to cover the newest variants. I could be wrong and perhaps the third booster will provide longer immunity. No one knows yet since we are all learning as we go, but it’s a suspicion I have. Perhaps a combination of flu/covid in a yearly booster.
ETA sorry, I meant to post to the thread, not you in particular. Clumsy thumb.
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Does your daughter meet the CDC criteria for the immuno-compromised ? If so then she doesn’t have to wait until 6 months. Hers would be a third shot, not a booster, according to my understanding,
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Except where are the Delta-targeted COVID-19 vaccines?
Going through the studies right now
Also remember there are so many new variants. The current vaccine is effective against Delta. It keeps people out of the hospital, so the vaccine is doing what it’s supposed to do. The big concern is the yet unknown variant to which the vaccine is ineffective.
She is on 20 mg prednisone which is considered the cutoff for “high”. She was not on prednisone when she got her first 2 doses. Her doctor recommends the booster. But like with everything else, it gets confusing.
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