As more Johnson & Johnson doses become available in Illinois, marking a third coronavirus vaccine option for residents, can you choose and should you?
According to medical experts, the three vaccines currently available in the US, including the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine, each provide some level of protection.
Pfizer and Moderna COVID vaccines are already circulating in the US, both requiring two injections for complete protection.
But according to an analysis by US regulators, the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson also offers strong protection against severe COVID-19.
Here’s a breakdown:
How Effective Is Each Vaccine?
The FDA said J & J’s vaccine provides strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospitalization, and death. One dose was 85% protective against the most serious COVID-19 disease, in a large-scale study spanning three continents – protection that remained strong even in countries like South Africa, where the most troubling variants are spreading.
Published results of a mass vaccination campaign in Israel showed that Pfizer’s vaccine was 92% effective in preventing serious illness after two injections and 62% after one. The estimated effectiveness for preventing death was 72% two to three weeks after the first shot, a percentage that may improve as immunity increases over time. Meanwhile, the Moderna vaccine provides a similar level of protection, 94.1%, and requires two injections 28 days apart.
It is not known whether any of the three vaccines will prevent the spread of the virus in asymptomatic humans.
While the overall effectiveness data may indicate that the J&J candidate is not as strong as the Pfizer and Moderna two-dose options, all of the world’s COVID-19 vaccines have been tested differently, making comparisons nearly impossible, CNBC reported .
“If you do some sort of comparison for flu vaccines, which we do annually, the effectiveness of influenza can range from 40% to 60% – and that’s a good year,” said Monica Hendrickson, Peoria County Health Department’s public health administrator. Wednesday. . “So again, something that is high public health was, you know, we were hoping for something above 40%. To hit 95%, even 65%, that’s a home run.”
Hendrickson noted that the vaccines each have high effectiveness against coronavirus death and severe disease.
“ So basically you’re looking at a distinction that from a clinical point of view, or from, you know, epidemiological point of view, is very small compared to what we really hope for, which is decrease in death and decrease in severe disease, where they all agree the three vaccines, “Hendrickson said.” Most importantly, however, when these vaccines hit the market, you get one if you have an option for one of these vaccines. “
Hendrickson’s message matches a message from Dr. Marina Del Rios, emergency medicine specialist at the University of Illinois-Chicago, during NBC 5’s “Vaccinated State” panel last month.
“Part of my message to the community was that the vaccines on the market are just as effective and just as safe,” said Del Rios. “The best vaccine you can get is the one you can get first, and get vaccinated. Sooner, sooner than later, protects us from getting sick ourselves and also our community, which has been so terribly devastated by this. virus. “
Dr. Arnold Monto of the University of Michigan, who chaired an FDA advisory panel that voted unanimously that the benefits of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine outweigh its risks, said there is no reason to prefer one vaccine over another .
“What people I think are most interested in is, will it keep me from really getting sick?” Collins said. ‘Will it keep me from dying of this terrible disease? The good news is that they all say yes to that. “
How are they different?
The Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccines differ from traditional vaccines in the use of mRNA. Rather than introducing a weakened or inactivated germ into your body, this vaccine injects mRNA, the genetic material that our cells read to make proteins, into your upper arm muscle. It teaches your body how to make the protein that triggers antibody production, so if the real virus enters your body later, your immune system will recognize it, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The Johnson & Johnson and another AstraZeneca vaccine also rely on instructions to make the spike protein that gives the coronavirus its signature shape and uses it to enter a cell. But they use DNA in an adenovirus, a very common virus.
J & J’s recording uses a cold virus like a Trojan horse to deliver the spike gene into the body, where cells make harmless copies of the protein to boost the immune system in case the real virus comes along. It’s the same technology the company used to make an Ebola vaccine.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines should also be stored frozen, while the J&J injection can keep in the refrigerator for three months, making it easier to handle. Widely used in Europe, Great Britain and Israel, the AstraZeneca vaccine is made in the same way and also requires refrigeration, but it requires two doses.
What are the side effects of each vaccine?
Like the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, the main side effects of the J&J injection are injection site pain and flu-like fever, fatigue, and headache. No study participant experienced the severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, which is a rare risk from some other COVID-19 shots, although a less severe reaction occurred in one.
The FDA said there were no serious side effects associated with the vaccine so far, although it recommends further monitoring for blood clots. In the study, those reported in about 15 vaccine recipients and 10 placebo recipients, not enough of a difference to say whether the vaccine played a role.
Where can you get them in Illinois?
Doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been shipped to both Illinois and Chicago since approval.
A new mass vaccination site in the suburbs of Des Plaines became the first large-scale facility to administer the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Illinois.
Dr. Chicago Department of Health Commissioner Allison Arwady said Tuesday that although the city was receiving doses following Johnson & Johnson’s approval, no shipments were shipped this week and none next week.
When you’re planning, it can be tricky to know a little bit. We hope there will be one the following week, but it didn’t, ”Arwady said. “Our Moderna vaccine has been flat, flat, flat for six weeks, right? We’ve gotten 26,050 first doses of Moderna vaccine every week that spread all over town – first doses. And then our Pfizer has gone up a little bit. ”
A new homebound program in Chicago also has paramedics delivering doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine into people’s homes.
Are there any other options?
Additional vaccines from AstraZeneca and Novavax may also be approved in the US
“In addition to the three approved or authorized here in the US, we are monitoring AstraZeneca,” said Dr. Allison Arwady, health commissioner in Chicago, Thursday. “That’s of active use, right? It’s already being used in Europe and some other countries and it’s, you know, it’s done its studies here … we’ll see. that, you know, we might see that vaccine in April. “
Arwady noted that the AtraZeneca vaccine has “performed well overall,” but there were concerns that it would not be as effective against the variant emerging in South Africa.
“There has been some extra care in looking at the vaccine in that context, but it has also been a very good vaccine overall,” Arwady said. “And I wouldn’t be surprised if we see it possibly, you know, being brought before the FDA in April.”
Novavax, the lesser known of the remaining vaccines, Arwady said, is another she’s keeping an eye on.
“Hundreds of companies have looked at vaccines, but I would say Novavax is the other one here in the US and I keep watching to be further behind in the studies, but their initial data looked good,” she said. Could that maybe be a bit for a different vaccine? I think it is possible. ‘