With three coronavirus vaccines now approved in the US, what is the difference between the vaccines and should you opt for one over the other?
According to medical experts, the three vaccines currently available in the United States each provide some protection, and you should make everything available to you as soon as possible.
Pfizer and Modern COVID vaccines spread the longest in the US, both requiring two shots for full protection.
Meanwhile, the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson also offers strong protection against severe COVID-19, according to an analysis by US regulators.
One thing is clear from medical experts: get the vaccine that is made available to you.
“All three of them are really pretty good, and people have to take the one that is best at their disposal,” said dr. Anthony Fauci said late in February on ‘Meet the Press’.
“If you go to a place and you have J&J and it’s the one available now, I would take it. I would personally do the same,” he said. “I think people need to be vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible,” he said.
As COVID-19 vaccines continue across the country, many of you still have questions about exactly what you can do and what you should still avoid after being vaccinated. Dr. Jay Wolfson, co-vice president of the University of South Florida Health, has joined LX News to answer some common questions.
Here’s what you need to know:
How effective is each vaccine?
The FDA said that J & J’s vaccine provides strong protection against the most important aspects: serious illnesses, hospitalizations and deaths. One dose was 85% protective against the most serious COVID-19 disease, in a massive study spanning three continents – protection that has remained strong even in countries like South Africa, where the varieties of most concern are spreading.
Published results of a mass vaccination campaign in Israel showed that Pfizer’s vaccine was 92% effective in preventing serious diseases after two shots and 62% after one. Its estimated effectiveness in preventing death was 72% two to three weeks after the first shot, a rate that may improve as immunity builds over time. Meanwhile, the Moderna vaccine offers a similar protection, 94.1%, and requires two shots, 28 days apart.
It is not known whether any of the three vaccines prevent the spread of the virus by people who are asymptomatic.
Although general efficacy data suggest that the J&J candidate is not quite as potent as the two doses of Pfizer and Moderna options, all COVID-19 vaccines in the world have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible, reports CNBC.
“If you do a comparison with flu vaccines, which we do annually, the effectiveness of flu can vary between 40% and 60% – and this is a good year,” said Monica Hendrickson, public health administrator of the department of health in Peoria County, said Wednesday. . ‘Again, something that has high public health was, we were hoping for something above 40%. Reaching 95%, even 65%, is a home. ‘
Hendrickson noted that the vaccines each have a high efficacy against death and serious diseases for coronavirus.
‘So you really look at a distinction that from a clinical point of view, or from, you know, an epidemiological point of view is very small compared to what we really hope, what is decrease in death and decrease in serious diseases, where they all correspond to the three vaccines, ”Hendrickson said. “The most important thing, though, is that if you have one of these, you can get one of them.”
Hendrickson’s message reflects a message that dr. Marina Del Rios, a specialist in emergency medicine at the University of Illinois-Chicago, made recently, during the NBC Chicago panel “Vaccinated State”.
” Part of my message to the community was that the vaccines on the market are equally effective and equally safe, ” Del Rios said. ‘The best vaccine you can get is the one you can get your hands on first and get vaccinated. sooner, sooner rather than later, we are protecting ourselves and also our community, which has been so terribly devastated by this virus. ”
Dr. Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan, who chaired an FDA advisory panel that unanimously agreed that the benefits of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine outweigh its risks, said the evidence showed no reason to vaccine to favor another.
“What people I think most interested in is that it keeps me from getting really sick?” Collins said. “Will it stop me from dying of this terrible disease? The good news is that all these things say yes to it.”
As COVID-19 vaccine trials begin for children, many parents can understandably be wary of reporting their own child as a subject. So we got Peter Pitts, a former co-commissioner of the FDA and president of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest, to outline the workings of vaccine trials for children and how researchers ensure that it is safe.
How do they differ?
The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines differ from traditional vaccines in the use of mRNA. Instead of introducing an attenuated or inactivated germ into your body, this vaccine injects mRNA, the genetic material that our cells read to make proteins, into your upper arm muscle. It teaches your body how to make the protein that causes antibody production, so if the real virus enters your body later, your immune system will recognize it, according to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca vaccines also rely on instructions to create the vein protein that gives the coronavirus its characteristic shape and which it uses to enter a cell. But they use DNA in an adenovirus, a common virus.
J & J’s shot uses a cold virus like a Trojan horse to carry the pike genes into the body, where cells make harmful copies of the protein to replenish the immune system should the actual virus occur. This is the same technology that the company used to make an Ebola vaccine.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also need to be kept frozen, while the J&J shot can keep in the fridge for three months, making it easier to handle. The AstraZeneca vaccine, which is commonly used in Europe, Britain and Israel, is manufactured in the same way and also requires refrigeration, but takes two doses.
When Dr. Jill Baird, a doctor at the Providence Cancer Institute, began a study with her husband Jason on how the COVID-19 vaccine benefited pregnant and lactating women, she also reported a subject. She offered her own breast milk to test for antibodies after receiving the vaccine herself. Watch to learn what they discovered.
What are the side effects for each vaccine?
Like the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, the main side effects of the J&J shot are injection site pain and flu-like fever, fatigue and headaches. No participant in the study experienced the severe allergic reaction, called anaphylaxis. This is a rare risk of some other COVID-19 shots, although a less severe reaction was experienced.
The FDA has said that so far no serious side effects have been linked to the vaccine, although it recommends further monitoring of blood clots. In the study, it was reported in approximately 15 vaccine recipients and 10 placebo recipients, which did not differ enough to determine whether the vaccine played any role.
Since the country is ready to start taking vaccines for COVID-19, it is important to understand the side effects. This is what doctors say people can expect.
Are there other options?
Additional vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax may also be approved in the US
The distribution of the AstraZeneca vaccine has been briefly suspended in several European countries because it is linked to blood clots, but the EU prescription drug agency later said there was no link and that the vaccine was safe.
Novavax, which is the lesser known of the remaining vaccines, is also on hand.
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine has been suspended by some European countries after blood clots were reported in some patients who received it. Regulators are now working to determine if the blood clots were due to the vaccine or just accidental. Dr Michelle McMurry-Heath, an immunologist and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, explains how the AstraZeneca differs from the other available vaccines and why she believes it will be safe.