News: Single-dose BIVALENT Moderna or Pfizer COVID vaccine now accepted for immigrant medicals

[Chancy 6,241]

"As of April 21, 2023, a single dose of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent meets the vaccine requirement of these Technical Instructions for applicants 6 years old or older and a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent meets the requirements for applicants 5 years old or older."

 

Monovalent Moderna or Pfizer vaccines are still acceptable, but require at least 2 doses prior to the medical.

 

For the full announcement, refer to the official CDC pages for immigrant medical exams --

Visa applicants: https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/panel-physicians/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

AOS applicants: https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/civil-surgeons/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

 

[Jimmyzr1 36]

On 4/22/2023 at 3:51 PM, Chancy said:

"As of April 21, 2023, a single dose of Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent meets the vaccine requirement of these Technical Instructions for applicants 6 years old or older and a single dose of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine, Bivalent meets the requirements for applicants 5 years old or older."

 

Monovalent Moderna or Pfizer vaccines are still acceptable, but require at least 2 doses prior to the medical.

 

For the full announcement, refer to the official CDC pages for immigrant medical exams --

Visa applicants: https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/panel-physicians/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

AOS applicants: https://www.cdc.gov/immigrantrefugeehealth/civil-surgeons/covid-19-technical-instructions.html

 

Are these available in the Philippines?

[Jack wendell 2]

Are Bivalent covid 19 vaccines available by the panel physicians in Bogota, Colombia?

[ZRomper 42]

I hate how confusing CDC made the article update. Instead of stating simply: "You now only require 1 dose of vaccine X" to complete the immigration vaccination requirements, they go out of their way to create a word salad where an average reader is perplexed.
What this sounds like is this:
1. If you've never had a COVID vaccine, you're required to only take the 1st shot and THEN the panel physician is allowed to state in your med exam papers as reason for "not completing" the entire schedule is the following: “Insufficient time interval between doses” blanket waiver. as it states in the above CDC article.

 

So the smart thing to do is get 1 dose and to avoid the 2nd one if you want, there is a mandatory minimum of 21 days between Pfizer shots, so just do your first shot and visit the panel doctor within those 21 days before you're due for the 2nd final shot.

 

And the airport or the consulate officer cannot hinder you anymore because you haven't completed the "full" covid-19 vaccination schedule.

The same applies for if you're on dose 2 and are required a 3rd dose, etc (i don't know what vaccine would require that today, 2 doses are the most you would require).

 

I also emailed our panel doctor's office here in Warsaw and they responded that having only 1 dose if "perfectly fine".

Edited June 14, 2023 by ZRomper