Battle of the Covid-19 Vaccines
Written by Thin Han
Edited by McKenna Ma
Jan 23rd 2022
Edited by McKenna Ma
Jan 23rd 2022
When Pokemon Go came out, the question most asked to strangers and friends alike was “Which team did you pick?” Now, ever since Covid-19 vaccines came out, that question has changed into “What vaccine did you get?” Whichever vaccine you received became a part of your identity to help you interact with others, whether it was trading stories about how the second dose hurt, talking about when to get the booster shot, or arguing about which one was more effective. Speaking of effectiveness, scientists have actually studied how effective various vaccines are at preventing hospitalization in adults with no immunocompromising conditions.
Researchers at the CDC studied the three vaccines offered in the United States: two 2-dose mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) and 1-dose viral vector vaccine (J&J) (Self et al., 2021). Not only was this experiment done by surveying 3689 COVID-19 patients in U.S. hospitals across 18 different states across six months, but the scientists also looked at the antibody levels of 100 volunteers working in those hospitals, two to six weeks after getting the vaccines. The difference between the two types of vaccines lies in the way they prepare our bodies to fight against the virus. The mRNA vaccines contain mRNA, which are essentially instructions to make spike proteins similar to those proteins on Covid-19 virus’s surface. Your body then develops antibodies against these spike proteins in order to prepare against the real Covid-19 spike proteins. On the other hand, the viral vector vaccine contains the spike protein DNA in a non-harmful virus which is taken up by your body’s cells. Your cells start producing the spike proteins, then recognize them as intruders and start making antibodies against them. Both types of vaccines give your body’s cells practice to fight against the real virus.
In conclusion, they found that the Moderna vaccine was 93% effective at preventing COVID-19 hospitalizations in adults without immunocompromising conditions, then Pfizer was the second best at 88%, and J&J was the least effective at 71%. The scientists explained the potential reasons for these differences in effectiveness could be due to differences in timing between doses, amount of mRNA content in the vaccines, and/or people who were unaccounted for in this study. However, the good news is that the effectiveness of all three vaccines are above 50%, which means all of them offer notable protection against Covid-19 hospitalizations. They are all worth getting, but if you do end up getting one, also remember to get the booster shot to make it even more effective.
Works Cited
Self, W.H., Tenforde, M.W., Rhoads, J.P., et al. (2021). Comparative Effectiveness of Moderna,
Pfizer-BioNTech, and Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) Vaccines in Preventing COVID-19 Hospitalizations Among Adults Without Immunocompromising Conditions. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Report 2021, 70, 1337-1342, http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7038e1
Image Source: “3d covid19 vaccine vials and syringe Free Photo” by freepik licensed under Freepik License