As many Johnson & Johnson vaccine appointments shift to doses of Pfizer or Modern vaccines after a recommended break in Illinois and Chicago, what can those who were previously anticipating the single vaccine expect?
While the pause in the J&J vaccine is likely to be only temporary, both the city and the state have already switched many vaccination clinics and events to one of the available vaccines.
The White House Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he believes the U.S. is likely to resume use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine as early as this week, although it could come with a warning or restriction.
Below are the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, their potential side effects, and the effectiveness they are believed to be.
What is an mRNA vaccine?
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines differ from traditional vaccines in terms of mRNA use.
Instead of introducing a weakened or inactivated germ into the body, this vaccine injects mRNA, the genetic material that our cells read to make proteins in the upper arm muscle. It teaches your body how to produce the protein that triggers the production of antibodies, so that if the real virus enters your body later, your immune system will recognize it, according to the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
How effective are Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines?
Questions about vaccine efficacy have been combined with an increase in the spread of multiple variants of COVID.
To date, studies suggest that the vaccines currently in use may recognize emerging variants, but may not provide as much protection against new strains.
The latest results from the Pfizer study, however, suggested that the vaccine is effective against the coronavirus variant that first emerged in South Africa.
“These data also provide the first clinical results that a vaccine can effectively protect against currently circulating variants, a critical factor in achieving herd immunity and ending this pandemic for the world’s population,” said Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech. a statement.
Modern, citing data from her phase three clinical trial, reported that her COVID-19 vaccine was more than 90% effective in protecting against COVID and more than 95% effective against serious illness up to six months after the second. dose, the company said.
But enhancers and new versions of vaccines targeting variants are already being explored.
Pfizer-BioNTech is testing a third booster shot of its vaccine in fully vaccinated people. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said people would “probably” need a third dose of a COVID-19 vaccine within 12 months of full vaccination.
“The flexibility of our proprietary mRNA vaccine platform allows us to technically develop booster vaccines in a few weeks, if necessary,” Ugur Sahin, CEO and co-founder of BioNTech, said in a statement.
Late last month, the National Institutes of Health began testing a new COVID vaccine from Moderna designed to protect against a variant first discovered in South Africa. Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC that the company expects to have a booster shot for the dose vaccine available in the fall.
But what about the variants?
In clinical trials, the Moderna vaccine reported 94.1% efficacy in the prevention of COVID-19 in people who received both doses. The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was said to be 95% effective.
A new CDC study reported that a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID vaccine was 80% effective in preventing infections. That figure rose to 90 percent two weeks after the second dose, the study on vaccinated health workers showed.
“These findings indicate that COVID-19 mRNA-authorized vaccines are effective in preventing SARS-CoV-2 infection, regardless of the state of symptoms, among adults of working age in real-world conditions,” he said. write the American agency in the studio. “Vaccination against COVID-19 is recommended for all eligible individuals.”
It is not known whether any of the vaccines prevent the spread of the virus by asymptomatic people.
Monica Hendrickson, public health administrator at Peoria County Health Department, noted that each vaccine has a high effectiveness against death and serious coronavirus disease.
“So really, you’re seeing a distinction that from a clinical standpoint or, you know, from an epidemiological standpoint is much smaller compared to what we really expect, which is the decrease in death and the decrease of serious diseases, where they all coincide between the three vaccines, ”Hendrickson said. “The most important thing, though, is that when these vaccines go on the market, if you have any option for any of those, you take one out.”
Hendrickson’s message is echoed by Dr. Marina Del Rios, an emergency medicine specialist at the University of Illinois-Chicago, during NBC’s “Vaccinated State” panel.
“Part of my message to the community has been that market vaccines are equally effective and equally safe,” Del Rios said. “The best vaccine you can get is the one you can get first and getting vaccinated sooner rather than later protects us from the disease of ourselves and also of our community, which has been so terribly devastated by this virus.”
What are the possible side effects?
Side effects are possible after receiving any vaccine against COVID that is currently being administered in the US
Experiencing side effects is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it is a signal that your body responds to.
“The good news for us is that a quick response equals an effective response,” Dr. Mark Loafman, president of family and community medicine at Cook County Health in Illinois, told NBC. “It tells us that the vaccine works. Our body is forming a solid immune response and we think that’s positive. So we tend to see that vaccines that have a higher rate of effectiveness also have more of the so-called side effects or the symptoms because they work so well. “
According to Pfizer, about 3.8% of clinical trial participants experienced fatigue as a side effect and 2% had headaches.
Moderna says 9.7% of its participants felt tired and 4.5% had a headache.
The CDC reports that the most common side effects of vaccines are at the injection site. They include:
The most common side effects on the body include:
- Tired
- Headache
- Muscle pain
- Shivers
- Fever
- Nausea
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advises people to stay there for 15 minutes after vaccination and those with a history of other allergies for 30 minutes, so they can be monitored and treated immediately. if they have any reaction.
Are side effects more likely after the first or second dose?
With two-shot vaccines, people are more likely to report side effects after their second dose, experts said.
According to the CDC, side effects after the second shot “may be more intense than those you experienced after the first shot.”
“These side effects are normal signs that your body is building protection and that it should go away in a few days,” the CDC states.
In the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine trials, more people experienced side effects after the second dose.
But that doesn’t mean you don’t have to do the second shot if you have side effects after the first, experts say.
“When people receive this second dose, they receive the second booster to try to achieve maximum effectiveness,” said Dr. Edward Cachay, a specialist in infectious diseases at UCSD.
The CDC also noted that both dams are needed.
“The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine and the Modern COVID-19 vaccine need 2 shots for maximum protection,” the CDC states. “You should receive the second shot even if you have side effects after the first shot, unless a vaccination provider or your doctor tells you not to.”
Are some people likely to experience side effects?
There are also some factors that can make you more likely to experience side effects.
The Chicago chief physician said Thursday that young people are more likely to experience side effects “because young people have a more robust immune system overall.”
And, according to Loafman, the body’s immune system is what creates the symptoms.
“This is simply a reflection of the immune response, just as we have when we get sick,” he said.
Arwady also noted that women are more likely to experience side effects than men.
“Something of this is because women can only be better reporters … but there’s probably something real, because another interesting thing for those who may not know as much about immunity is that autoimmune diseases they’re much more likely in women, too, ”Arwady said. “And even the most serious allergic reactions like allergic reactions, the most severe allergic reactions? It’s more likely in women.”
Why that?
Arwady said estrogen can elevate immune responses, while testosterone can lower it. At the same time, he noted that “many of your immune-modulating genes” can live on an “x” chromosome, which has two women, while men have one.
“So there are all these reasons why the class of immunity generally increases a little differently in women than in men,” she said. “And so we see women, a little more likely to report some of the side effects.”
CDC data also reported that women were more likely to experience side effects than men, according to follow-up from the first month of vaccination.
The data showed that from December 14 to January 13, more than 79% of side effects were reported by women. Meanwhile, women received approximately 61.2 percent of the doses administered during this same time.
Side effects can also vary depending on whether you have had coronavirus or not.
“We’ve seen people more likely to notice some side effects because that acts a bit like a booster dose to your immune system,” Arwady said. “Your immune system has already learned some of these lessons on how to protect yourself, not so in a not-so-protective way.”
“It’s probably that reinforcing effect, too,” Arwady said.
Loafman agrees.
“If you had COVID a while ago or you already have some immunity, it’s more of a booster,” he said. “And the boosters for some people are completely asymptomatic, the boosters for other people trigger their immune response against it, so they have some inflammation.”
But not getting side effects is not negative, health experts say.
“If you don’t have side effects, it doesn’t mean you’re not protected,” Arwady said. “I want to be very clear.”
According to Loafman, it simply means that “your body did not react with so much inflammatory response.
“You’re still making antibodies,” he said.
According to Loafman, each person’s response is unique.
“It’s really a kind of reflection on the uniqueness of each of our systems, of what other immunities we have,” he said. “You know, a lot of antibodies react crosswise and we have cross-reactivity, so it’s really a mosaic. Each of our immune systems is a mosaic made up of everything we’ve experienced, everything we have and everything we’ve had recently. individual response varies. Everyone gets the right immune response. “