New COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out across the United States last month, with people now having access to the latest versions of the Moderna, Pfizer and Novavax vaccines. But given the choice, which vaccine is better at protecting you from the coronavirus?
It’s important to state this up front. No one vaccine is considered the best of all vaccines. Instead, there are several factors to consider for each to make the best decision for you.
Let us introduce you to the experts. William Schaffner, MD, is an infectious disease expert and professor at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. Dr. David Dimato, Professor of Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dr. Donald Dunford III, infectious disease specialist at Cleveland Clinic Akron General.
With that in mind, here’s what infectious disease doctors want you to know about coronavirus vaccines and how to decide which one is best for you.
What coronavirus vaccines are currently available?
There are probably several options available when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine, but it’s worth a refresher. There are three vaccines that have now been updated and are available for use in the United States:
Moderna’s Spikevax mRNA vaccine Pfizer-BioNTech’s Comirnaty vaccine Novavax’s NVX-CoV2705 vaccine
Which coronavirus vaccine is better?
It’s hard to say one is better than the other. “Antibody studies show that mRNA vaccines tend to elicit a stronger immune response,” said Dr. Donald Dunford III, an infectious disease specialist at the Cleveland Clinic Akron General. “However, when looking at efficacy in clinical trials, mRNA and protein-based vaccines perform similarly in terms of the number of COVID-19 infections they prevent and hospitalizations/deaths they prevent.”
David Diemert, a professor of medicine at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences, said all three vaccines are similarly safe and protect against severe disease. “However, the Novavax vaccine uses technology that has been used for decades in several other licensed vaccines, such as the hepatitis B vaccine and the HPV vaccine, so Some people may prefer vaccination.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) currently recommends the Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine for everyone six months of age and older. The Novavax vaccine has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in people 12 years of age and older.
How do vaccines work?
Dr. Dunford says it’s important to first understand how the virus works. “Viruses attach to cells, invade cells, and use the cell’s own mechanisms to make more copies of the virus and cause disease in the body,” he says. “When a virus makes too many new copies of itself, they jump out of the cell and kill it.”
Pfizer and Moderna
Both are mRNA vaccines and work slightly differently. According to Dr. Dunford, they prompt the body to produce spike protein. The spike protein is what the virus uses to attach to and infect cells. “So a small piece of genetic material, the blueprint for the spike protein, is injected into the muscle,” he explains. “The cells then start making only the coronavirus spike protein, and the body responds by making anti-spike protein antibodies.”
Novovax
“Many vaccines inject proteins directly into the muscle, causing the body to produce antibodies,” Dr. Dunford says. “This is how the Novavax vaccine works.”
With the Novavax vaccine, “only the spike protein of the coronavirus is injected into the muscle, and the body makes antibodies against that spike protein,” he says. As a result, when the body is later exposed to COVID-19, it recognizes the spike protein and has already built up a defense against COVID-19, Dr. Dunford explains.
How effective are the Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines?
Since these vaccines have been updated, there is no recent data on their effectiveness. However, data from clinical trials when the vaccines were first released showed that the Pfizer vaccine was 95% effective at preventing coronavirus infections, while the Moderna vaccine was 94.1% effective.
Data since then shows the vaccine is effective in preventing severe illness and hospitalization, but it doesn’t necessarily protect everyone from getting COVID-19, infectious disease experts say. says William Schaffner, M.D., professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University. .
How effective is the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine?
Studies conducted on the original Novavax vaccine found it to be 90% effective at preventing people from developing the virus and 100% effective at protecting people from severe disease.
Although Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine targets the JN.1 variant of the virus, it is important to point out that the mRNA version of the vaccine is less common than the KP.2 version it targets. But Novavax says its latest vaccine can protect against multiple strains of the virus.
Is Novavax better than mRNA?
No, the Novavax vaccine is not better than the mRNA COVID vaccine. It’s just different.
“If someone is concerned about myocarditis, for example a young man, they may choose the Novavax vaccine, which appears to have a lower risk of the rare side effects of mRNA vaccines,” says Dr. Diemert.
If you have concerns or aren’t sure which vaccine to get, Dr. Dunford recommends contacting your primary care physician for guidance. “Some people have concerns about mRNA platforms because they are seen as a ‘new’ technology. For those people, I recommend Novavax,” he says. “However, keep in mind that although commercially available mRNA vaccines are new, scientists have been studying this technology for the past several decades.”
Overall, Dr. Schaffner recommends getting whatever vaccine is available. “Many private health care providers will be purchasing the vaccine and that’s what they normally do with any type of vaccine,” he says. “However, some pharmacies may have multiple pharmacies.”
“Get the vaccine that’s available to you, because delays often mean you’re not getting the vaccine,” Dr. Schaffner says.
Which COVID vaccine is the safest?
Dr. Diemert said all coronavirus vaccines are considered safe. “With any vaccine, there is always a risk of extremely rare allergic reactions, but the three vaccines have a similar level of risk in this regard,” he says.
However, Dr. Diemert points out that both mRNA vaccines carry a risk of myocardial inflammation (myocarditis), especially in young men. “While there have been some rare reports of myocarditis associated with the Novavax vaccine, all of these have come from outside the United States, and the FDA has stated that there is no suspected link between the Novavax vaccine and myocarditis. “I haven’t,” he says.
The Novavax vaccine is also less likely to cause side effects locally in the arm, and “you’re less likely to feel sick the next day,” Dr. Schaffner said. Dr. Dunford agrees. “Mild to moderate side effects, such as fever, fatigue, headache, and muscle pain, appear to be more common with mRNA vaccines,” he says.
But Dr. Dunford emphasizes that “all vaccines are considered to be very safe.”
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