Wondering If It's Too Late To Get A COVID Vaccine Before Thanksgiving? Read This.

LOADING ERROR LOADING Thanksgiving week is here, and there’s a good chance your plans for the food-focused holiday are already in place. But if your plans to get the updated COVID-19 vaccine well before the holiday fell through, you may be wondering if it’s too late to get the shot before getting together with family and friends. Dr. David Wohl, an infectious diseases specialist at the University of North Carolina’s School of Medicine, previously told HuffPost that “it can take a good two weeks to get the full effect of the vaccine.” So ideally, you would’ve gotten the updated COVID-19 vaccine by at least Nov. 14 this year to reap its full benefits before the Thanksgiving holiday. Jennifer B. Nuzzo, professor of epidemiology and director of the Pandemic Center at Brown University School of Public Health, pointed out that getting the COVID-19 vaccination now “will likely provide extra protection during the end of December holidays.” “The only downside I can think of to getting boosted now is if you typically experience normal but unpleasant symptoms after getting vaccinated, it could dampen your Thanksgiving cheer,” she told HuffPost. Dr. Onyema Ogbuagu, a Yale Medicine infectious diseases physician and associate professor at Yale School of Medicine, also told HuffPost that while it’s “a bit too late at this point to benefit from full protection for the upcoming Thanksgiving period,” there is “no harm with getting the vaccine, as post-Thanksgiving period still matters as we are in respiratory viral season.” Ogbuagu emphasized that he feels particularly strongly that people ages 65 and older, as well as people with moderate to severe immunocompromising conditions, receive the updated COVID-19 vaccine, “as they stand the most to lose if they don’t and most to benefit if they do.” Dr. Amesh A. Adalja, a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, also acknowledged that the immune system takes “some time” to develop high enough antibody levels to prevent infection after a person gets a COVID-19 shot, but recommends that individuals who are considered high-risk get the vaccine “as soon as possible” regardless, he told HuffPost.