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Can you mix and match Covid boosters in EU countries

Trying to decide which booster to get. Had Pfizer for first 2 doses but thinking about Moderna for booster. Traveling this Summer to Germany, Austria and Greece (including Naxos) and cannot find anything written saying that will be excepted like in US. Can anyone help?

Posted by
181 posts

I'm an Immunizer with Public Health in British Columbia, I have some knowledge regarding the booster doses

Moderna is a good choice for the booster because it has 3x the amount of MRNA than Pfizer. It is also more effective on the Delta variant.

You already have 2 doses of Pfizer, so you have a matched dose for travelling.

As a health care worker, I had my first 2 doses of Pfizer 28 days apart in January and February. I had my booster 2 weeks ago. I probably would have chosen Moderna, but we had some Pfizer left over that day at the clinic just before a 2 day closure and it would have had to be thrown out. I'm still happy with having Pfizer. Both are great choices.

Not sure what the protocol is in the US or EU.

Posted by
26829 posts

In the US, Moderna boosters are half the strength of the two original Moderna vaccinations--still with more active ingredient than Pfizer.

Posted by
32505 posts

you can choose? Here we take what we are given.

Posted by
10116 posts

I'm in an EU country, France. My first two were Moderna, the booster Pfister. So, yes you can

Posted by
2207 posts

We will be mix-and-matching in the NL as our first two shots were Aztra Zeneca, which is no longer offered here. Thus, our third-shot booster - hopefully in December - will be Pfizer or Moderna. Like Nigel, we did not get a choice, and apparently, regarding the booster, will again not get a choice.

Posted by
30 posts

I had AZ for both my first and second doses in the UK but understand that I will either have Pfizer or Moderna for my booster dose but don’t know which yet but not concerned about which one. As it is at my local pharmacy, I suppose I could ask them and I didn’t want it then to cancel that appointment and make enquiries of the other test sites listed on the nhs website but even that has no guarantees as I don’t think that the centres are able to choose their vaccines, they get delivered what is available at that time.

Posted by
175 posts

Thanks everyone for all the good info. Where I live in the US the boosters are available at our local pharmacies and depending on which Pharmacy you can get an appointment with depends on which brand of shot you get. Right now in my area lots of appointments available with both brands.

Posted by
6113 posts

We get no choice here as Nigel has said. I had Pfizer for my first two shots and had the same for my booster on Saturday. My husband had AstraZeneca for his first two and had a Pfizer booster at the weekend.

Posted by
3049 posts

Mix and matching seems to be fairly encouraged in Germany by public health authorities. Anyone who received their 2nd vaccinee 6 months ago can get a booster. Anecdotally I know a lot of people here who got AZ or J&J who are seeking out an mRNA vac for their booster, which makes perfect sense, as they provide better protection It's more difficult to get Moderna here, Biontech (aka Pfizer to the Yanks) is far more common.

I'm on the fence about trying to get Biontech or going with Moderna as I did for my 1st two shots. It also depends where - on base, it will be Moderna, but "on the economy" it would be Biontech so after seeing my doctor tomorrow I'm going to go with whichever one I can get first, given the case numbers here.

Posted by
4253 posts

I've heard that a certain drugstore chain will not schedule a booster shot that's different from your originals. I would not patronize a provider that substitutes their own judgement for what FDA says. At a different drugstore chain, I just scheduled myself for a Moderna booster even though I originally had Pfizer. It is nice to have the choice. My husband and I did not have choices for our original shots-at that time it was so difficult to get appts that we were happy to get whatever we could.

Posted by
2091 posts

Hoping to travel summer 2022. I thought I read somewhere that a booster (3rd shot) had to be administered within a certain period of time prior to entering Europe (6 months?). Does anyone know if this is true?

Also, what's the best source of info for entry requirements into Europe/return to US? I usually look at the State Department website but it doesn't seem to have the most up to date info. thank you!

Posted by
14799 posts

There is no general "Europe" requirement. Every country sets their own entry requirement. They all have their own websites with updated information. Those are the best and mist accurate.