COVID-19 Vaccine Information for Patients
Dear Members of the MSK Community,
In the coming weeks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will provide guidance on an additional dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Once approved, we will update our patients with more information, including who is eligible and how they can schedule.
Some Patients with Weakened Immune Systems Can Receive Additional Vaccine Dose Now
There is a small group of patients with moderately to severely weakened immune systems who are eligible for an additional vaccine dose now, based on recommendations from the FDA and the CDC. Because of their severely weakened immune systems, these patients may not have enough protection from COVID-19 after their initial vaccination. Learn more about who is eligible and how to schedule at MSK.
It’s important to know that not everyone with cancer has a moderately to severely weakened immune system. If you think you meet the criteria, call your MSK doctor’s office or send a message through MyMSK, our patient portal.
What MSK Patients Can Do to Prepare
While we wait for more guidance, we encourage our patients to sign up for a MyMSK account and make sure their contact information is up to date. This is important especially for our vaccine records and for us to be able to reach out to our patients when we have important information to share.
Patients can review and update their contact information by following these steps:
- If you have a MyMSK account, log in to make changes.
- After you have logged in, click on the circle with your initials in the top right, then click on “Profile.”
- Select “Contact Information.”
- Review and update the contact information if needed, then click “Save.” It may take up to week for the changes to be made in MyMSK.
Patients who want to create a MyMSK account can visit my.mskcc.org, call 646-227-2593, or call their doctor’s office for an enrollment ID. Watch this video with instructions on how to enroll.
For patients who have been vaccinated outside MSK, please upload proof of vaccination to MyMSK by taking the following steps:
- Log into MyMSK.
- Select “Medical Info” on the top of the page.
- Select “Allergies and Immunizations.”
- Select the “Immunizations” tab.
- Select “Add New.”
- Fill out the date and description of your most recent vaccine dose. Select your primary MSK provider. Select “Add attachment(s)” to upload an image of your vaccination card. Then, select “Report Immunization.”
Update to Our Visitor Policy
We now request that all visitors to any MSK location are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. This is for the safety of our patients and staff. Read our full visitor policy.
We continue to be grateful to our patients for entrusting us with their care, and are glad that so many have received the vaccines, which offer safe and effective protection against COVID-19.
Information Session: COVID-19 Update
On February 25, a panel of MSK experts answered your questions about vaccine distribution, effectiveness of the vaccine, and how to stay safe from COVID-19.
Listen to the replay
