Looks like the Moderna vaccine is getting ready to roll out. Say you had already gotten the Pfizer vaccine. If you went ahead and got the Moderna one, too, are you now even more protected?
Without knowing what’s in them or how they work, it’s hard to say… I would guess that the odds of “double protection” (whatever that means) are very low. More likely they’re either similar enough that you get adverse affects from the higher concentration, that they react to each other badly with unpleasant results for you, or that you just end up with redundancy and the same level of “protection” as just taking one.
IANA doctor but on the whole, I wouldn’t recommend it.
Well, let’s go over all the research done on people getting both vaccines…and we’re done.
Both those vaccines work on a very similar in method. Both use mRNA, both focus on the same “spike” protein. I doubt taking both would be any different than just taking more of either.
It’s impossible to predict with any confidence without data that we don’t have, and won’t have, but:
As for efficacy, you would be more likely to get an additive effect if the vaccines targeted different antigens, or at least use different mechanisms. All the major vaccines so far target the same Spike antigen, and Pfizer & Moderna both use mRNA, just with slightly different structures.
So a reasonable WAG would be that it would be similar to getting extra doses of the same vaccine. That hasn’t been tested either. But when the standard protocol is already giving 95% protection, it’s hard to imagine how the risk-reward is favorable.
[ninjaed]
Getting both vaccines might take a dose (or two) away from someone else who needs it. Since both vaccines require two shots, I’d get just the two shots of one or the other.
And as always, I’d say ask your doctor. He or she may recommend against it.
Maybe after getting your two shots of either one this year and then getting one of either one of them a year from now might give you a boost. Let’s call it a booster shot. Will they be giving out different booster shots after year? No one knows but my guess is that any booster will be a of what they believed actually worked best plus something to take into account new strains. I don’t see any reason to take both now.
There are apparently two more vaccines on the horizon that seem to take a more traditional approach than the mRNA vaxxes and I’m thinking IF there’s any added benefit to be had it would be to add the traditional style vax to the new one.
It would likely be comparable to taking a third dose of either. I know they studied different quantities of the jab. I wonder if they also studied different numbers of jabs.
And if your doctor is for it, I’d get another physician.
This would be an example of off-label prescribing. That shouldn’t be done except in a trial, or where there is published evidence for departure from the prescribing information released by your national drug regulator. In this case, there is no evidence supporting such a departure.
Off-label prescribing is done all the time, and it’s usually not a trial and it’s also usually fine.
But this is not a good case for it.