Where I live I will soon be eligible for the vaccine. Around me its mostly Pfizer and Moderna, which is what I want since I prefer the mRNA vaccine. When you sign up, they tell you what vaccine they have available at each clinic.
However, and I’m sure this has been discussed, is the Pfizer vaccine better than Moderna?
Pros of the Pfizer vaccine from what I can tell:
Both prevent hospitalizations, deaths and symptomatic infections, but isn’t the Pfizer vaccine a little better than moderna at preventing hospitalizations? Or is that misinfo?
The Pfizer vaccine requires 3 weeks waiting between shots, Moderna is 4 weeks of waiting.
Cons of the Pfizer vaccine:
Around here, the moderna shot is being given at walmarts, while the Pfizer vaccine is being given at hospitals. Going to hospitals in this current climate seems to put me at a higher risk of catching something. Its also more inconvenient, but thats a minor issue.
I know some people will say ‘it doesn’t matter which one you get as long as you get vaccinated’, but I am going to get vaccinated. I’m just wondering if it matters which mRNA vaccine you get. I don’t know if theres a meaningful difference or if its just splitting hairs.
To add to OP’s question, is one more likely to be administered correctly (stored/prepared/handled/injected) than the other? With the large expansion of providers there is increased possibility of user error, which could negate any medical advantage. Thank you.
As far as I can tell… no. Of course, I’m no Dr. Fauci, but really, they both seem to be 100% effective at prevent serious illness/hospitalization/death which is the most important thing the vaccine should do for you.
No, as far as I know they both seem to completely prevent hospitalizations.
Speaking as someone who has been working retail… while a hospital has more sick people they also tend to have more rigorous infection control measures. At a store you get more maskholes and idiots. It’s kind of a toss up, but for me personally I’d probably feel safe going to a hospital for a vaccination as, presumably, they will have set that up in an area away from sick people.
At my local hospital they’ve set up the COVID testing facility outside as a drive through and the COVID vaccination facility in what’s normally the staff training theater in a separate building from the actual patient care hospital. The only people in that building are vaccinators and vaccinatees.
The issue that I was worried about is that the Pfizer vaccine seems to have much more difficult storage and transportation requirements, being necessary to keep it at something like -70 degrees and having some very brief shelf-life once it is thawed. It seems much more possible that it could get mis-handled and spoiled somewhere along the way – especially earlier this year, when all the logistics were still being figured out, and all the parties who had to handle and transport the vaccine were still dealing with getting the right refrigeration equipment installed. I thought the Moderna vaccine seemed a whole lot easier to handle, and thus have a better chance to get handled properly at every step.
It so happened that when I got my jab, it was Moderna they were dishing out, so I just kept my mouth shut and went away happy about that.
They would have a pretty strict chain of custody on the vaccines, right? I would assume there’s very little chance you’d get a dud vaccine because no one was keeping track of the temperature.
It’s like getting a new iPhone or the latest Beats headphones. You want the latest technology or all the cool kids will mock you.
I haven’t heard any medical reason to get the mRNA vaccine over the traditional vaccine (J&J). I’d actually prefer the J&J since it’s a single shot and will get me to fully vaccinated quicker.
I didn’t choose. The vaccine available happened to be Pfizer, which was fine by me because it was the first vaccine available, which means it has the longest track record in terms of results, side effects, etc.
Having been one of those people in that chain of custody in years past I can assure you that very careful care is taken and then signed off on at every juncture.
I mean, it seems more than likely that we’ll be looking at booster shots for better protection against variants by the time the initial round of vaccinations is complete, so I wouldn’t be horribly fussed about the difference in long term protection between any given vaccines. I’m pretty sure from a statistical perspective the best vaccine you can get is the first one you can get injected into your arm, unless perhaps the theoretically more efficacious vaccine will be available to you within a matter of a couple more days. The difference between 90% and 80% is going to be less than the penalty of walking around with 0% protection for even a few weeks.
