I’m headed back to grad school and realized I don’t have records of my MMR vaccines since they were over 20 years ago.
The school website is clear: I need it.
I’m in a bit of a panic that suddenly a week before school starts I’m going to have to withdraw.
Has anyone else ever been in this situation?
Is there some magical place to get old vaccine info from before internet days?
I’ll head over in person tomorrow but just was hoping to hear some reassurance that I’m not the only one who has had this last minute monkey wrench.
Do people really have to withdraw for not having vaccine records from decades ago?
I can’t imagine you will need to withdraw.
Do you know the name of your old pediatrician’s office? They may still have records…or your parents?
You can also have a titer drawn to see if you have immunity and if not, you can always get the vaccine as an adult.
Personally I’d also call the health department at your school and let them know you are working on it.
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Can you now get a booster? You can probably get that done…tomorrow!
ETA…well partially…this is from the CDC website:
Students at post-high school educational institutions
Students at post-high school educational institutions who do not have presumptive evidence of immunity need two doses of MMR vaccine, separated by at least 28 days.
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It won’t hurt you to have the series again if it comes to that. But the school won’t make you withdraw immediately - just let them know you’re working on getting the records. As long as your pediatrician is still in business they should have the records.
This is common. See if they will allow you to prove immunity with titers(you have to have a doc order the labs and then you get your blood drawn and wait 3-5 days for results). Alternatively, just get an MMR vaccine. Even if you have had them, it is not a problem to get an extra one.
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Can you not just get the shot again? This doesn’t seem difficult to solve at all.
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See my edit above…
That still seems doable. If it is like other schools, as long as you show evidence that you have started the series and have a plan to complete the series, that should be acceptable. Of course, worth a phone call to the college to be sure, but there is a good chance if she does at least the first shot with a date scheduled for the second, they will allow her to enroll.
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I agree. And the pediatrician office likely has records. But they might need some time to find them as they are probably stored.
We had to get this for our son. He had transferred docs when he graduated from high school…and that office had a burn down fire and all records were gone (none had been transferred to EMR). Called the pediatrician. It took them a few days but they found the records. We also had some camp physical forms with the immunization records on them (completed by the doc).
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Yeah I’d just go get another one. I did. when I was 40. Just pop into any cvs or target and get one today. Problem solved.
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Sometimes schools will just send you to student health center to get what you’re missing. Call and ask if can get missing shots on site.
You likely had to do this to go to undergrad, might want to check to see if you have anybody forms from then. Forms I did for Ds just wanted date of shots.
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Good catch by the above poster. It is highly likely you had to provide immunization records when you started undergrad school. Maybe reach out to them. Or try to remember how you got those records then.
Also…do you have a PCP now? Did you have your immunization records transferred to that provider. I know mine asked for this.
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This is also a possibility. My daughter just started college this fall and I know her college recently held a vaccine clinic on campus for any student who hadn’t completed the required vaccines for enrollment. They just took care of it on the spot. Also worth asking about.
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I had this happen to me when I started grad school in California a few years ago.
Although they don’t say it on their website, MMR is usually one of the vaccines where proof of immunization through titres is accepted (at least, it was for me).
They also gave me an extension to get it done, so don’t panic!
So as others have said, you can get the shots again, or you can (very likely) get titres.
In California, you can even order the titres yourself through ulta labs or other “order your own labs” websites, if that’s the route you want to go and if it will save you time.
Good luck!
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So college is about solving problems. It’s not about withdrawing. Everything isn’t always going to go as smoothly as planned. Advice above suggestions are great. If you belong to Costco they can do this. But your student health department is probably your first avenue if you can’t find the records. Also you have an advisor and counselor and RA. Use them as contacts. They have all dealt with this before. Enjoy your freshman year.
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I think the OP is a parent who is returning to grad school after a long hiatus.
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Got it… Didn’t realize that. Thx for pointing that out. Good luck to them.
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you shouldn’t have to withdraw. What school is it? Most schools allow people to file exemptions anyway, so surely you could do that if you can’t find the records.
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Also if want to go titer route, try a walk in urgent care (here it’s Doctors Care). Had to do this with my girls for chicken pox cause they had it before vaccine available and no record with doctor cause back in the day not something you did if not a bad case🙄
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Thanks all!
My takeaway is that this isn’t as uncommon as I feared.
It’s an Ivy league university so a major entity with lots of students so I can’t imagine no one has had this problem before. But then again most people aren’t going back to school at my age so most people probably have some reasonable access to their pediatrician office, high school, etc. Great thought on asking undergrad and grad schools (although my MBA 30th reunion is next month so not sure they will have held onto paper records for this long… haha!)
I can re-do the shots but the school website says that this must be done 30 days before classes and if not you will be “de-registered.” It’s super clear on the website. I just simply dropped the ball here. (When they said they needed vaccine records, honestly my mind went to covid and thought I was covered! Oops!)
Anyway — I’ll find out for sure tomorrow when school office opens up. In the meantime, I’m on the plane now flying out anyway, my suitcase packed for the semester, crossing fingers I won’t be “de-registered.”
Thanks!!
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