Can’t Decide Which COVID Vaccine Is Better? Here’s Help!

Moderna and Pfizer are COVID vaccines that received emergency use authorization from the FDA in December, are developed rapidly and showed that these vaccines have excellent initial efficacy. hence, both vaccines are rapidly developed and distributed to faculties.

Which COVID Vaccine Do You Get?

According to William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, you can get either of the vaccines. As long as the vaccines are less in number, people won’t get the chance to select which vaccine they get. It is also not sure that all infirmaries will have both vaccines at the required time.

Schaffner stated to Inverse that “Certainly at this stage, each location that provides vaccines will have only one kind of vaccine.”

How many vaccines every state will get will be decided by the federal government. Vaccines should be stored in a safe place. Schaffner says, “the main thing is the cold storage,” and further added “That’s far and away what accounts for 99 percent of who’s getting what.”

Factors to Decide Which COVID-19 Vaccine You Get

Both Moderna and Pfizer require to be transported and stored safely and in different methods. Some areas are a more suitable fit for one of the vaccines compared to the other. The Pfizer vaccine has to store a long-term temperature of -70 degrees celsius or -94 degrees Fahrenheit that indicates these vaccines can be stored for about 30 days in a specially designed cooler by Pfizer. The cooler has to be refilled with dry ice for five days once. If this method is not possible then you can store the vaccine in a normal refrigerator for 5 days.

Difference between Pfizer and Moderna Vaccines

The phase three clinical trial of the Pfizer vaccine declared that the vaccine is about 95% effective in preventing Coronavirus disease. Moderna is also equally priced in that it is about 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 disease. Neither of the vaccines completely proved to prevent infection. So it is better if you wear a mask to avoid getting infected.

These two vaccines have similar types of side effects that include fever, headache, or fatigue. As stated by the data about the Modern vaccine trial, they declared that many people experienced intense headache and fatigue during the trial compared to Pfizer’s. Approximately, 9.7% of people who participated in Moderna’s trial experienced severe fatigue meanwhile in Pfizer’s trial 3.8% of people experienced severe fatigue.

Schaffner describes both vaccines as “small potatoes.” They can’t be interchangeable. Schaffner stated that these two vaccines should not be mixed and matched. If a specific location receives one brand, it is tough to stick to that brand when taking a second dose. It is not yet proved how well these vaccines actually work when they combine. The second Pfizer Vaccine comes 21 days once whereas it will take 28 days for the Moderna vaccine.

Conclusion

As per the FDA statement, both the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine will be studied continuously. It will help find how well it works and what are the modifications they need to make. If these results come quickly, then it will be cleared that will be best for some populations. Now both the vaccines perform equally, says Schaffner. FDA is following up on reports of severe allergic reactions to the Pfizer vaccine.

It is necessary to remember that there are several Covid vaccines on the way. Around 18 vaccines are in Phase 3 trials. If these vaccines perform well and are effective n COVId-19 disease, they may determine which vaccines they will get as per supply availability.