3 Coronavirus Vaccines Now Available In CT: How Do They Differ?

CONNECTICUT — The latest weapon in the war against the coronavirus — a third vaccine — debuted in the state last week, with much fanfare. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine famously requires just a single jab to fully vaccinate someone, but how else does it differ from its predecessors mixed by Pfizer-Biotech and Moderna?

For one, it's in much shorter supply in Connecticut. The state took receipt of 39,000 doses last week, but no more are expected this week, according to Connecticut's chief operating officer Josh Greballe. The next shipment is expected sometime the week of March 15.

The J&J vaccine, developed by its Janssen Pharmaceuticals division, works in the traditional fashion, the way you were told vaccines worked back in high school. It contains a modified form of the actual virus, one that cannot cause infection, but still trains the immune system to create the appropriate white blood cells and antibodies.

The vaccines from Moderna and hometown favorite Pfizer are based on a relatively new technology called messenger RNA. These vaccines don't contain any form of the virus, but rather introduce a molecule which tells the cells what to build, according to the University of Cambridge. Essentially, the microscopic messenger instructs your immune system to build a disease-specific antigen to its pre-coded specifications, which is then used to fight the real thing.

The tech behind the mRNA vaccines may be relatively new, but it's not unproven. It was the same delivery mechanism used for the Zika and Ebola vaccines.

The J&J vaccine was given emergency use authorization by the Food & Drug Administration on Feb. 27. The Pfizer was the first vaccine to be approved, so it has been in circulation for the longest amount of time in the state. Both Pfizer and Moderna have been used by Connecticut in the early stages of the rollout to inoculate frontline workers and the most vulnerable among the population.

The Moderna and J&J vaccines may be jabbed into the arms of anyone aged 18 and over, but the Pfizer is also cleared for use by children 16-plus. More testing needs to be done on all three vaccines before they will be injected into the arms of anyone younger.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been shown to be 66 percent protective against moderate to severe COVID-19 infection in a multi country study, and 85 percent effective in protecting against severe disease. Johns Hopkins has reported that both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines show around an astonishing 95 percent efficacy at preventing both mild and severe symptoms of COVID-19.

The big difference in the vaccines for most residents, and especially state health officials who are managing the logistics of the rollout, is that the J&J requires just one jab to be completely effective. People must wait 21 days between their two Pfizer shots, and 28 days if they are taking the Moderna vaccine.

Another advantage claimed by the J&J vaccine is that it's a lot easier to ship and store. The vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna must be kept at sub-zero temperatures.

As for side effects, there are a few, but nothing to stress about. All three vaccines promise some pain at the site of the injection. You may also experience fever, fatigue, and some muscle and joint pain, according to Yale New Haven Health.

The vaccine rollout was all proceeding according to Hoyle until new variants of the virus emerged in the United Kingdom, Brazil, and South Africa and began to make their way stateside. Tests to determine the resistance of the vaccines to these other strains are ongoing.

At a news conference Monday, Gov. Ned Lamont said the state Department of Public Health was tracking the spread of the variants in Miami and San Diego. In Connecticut, 81 cases of the UK variant, and two of the South African, have been reported. The current armory of vaccines are all effective against the U.K. variant, Lamont said, and he believes that the state's current rollout pace places it "ahead" of that variant's spread. The first Connecticut resident death from the U.K. variant was reported over the weekend.

But Wait... There's More...

Two more coronavirus vaccines are on the horizon.

The University of Oxford partnered with the British-Swedish company AstraZeneca to produce a vaccine that is just over 82 percent effective, with doses jabbed 12 weeks apart. Like the Moderna and Pfizer flavors, the Oxford-AstraZeneca contains instructions and not an actual virus. Unlike those mRNA vaccines, it uses a double-stranded DNA to deliver the marching orders, according to the New York Times. It can be stored in a refrigerator and is made from a weakened version of the common cold virus. AstraZeneca has won authorizations in some markets based upon data generated in Brazil, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

A new vaccine from Maryland-based Novavax works by teaching an immune system to make antibodies to a spike protein. Like the one from J&J, it does not require crazy-cold temperatures to store it. On Tuesday, the Novavax CEO told Fox Business his company's vaccine has proven 96 percent effective against the original strain of the coronavirus, and 86 percent and 50 percent effective versus the U.K. and South African variants, respectively. The Novavax was the first coronavirus vaccine to prove effective against both the U.K. and South African variants, according to a company news release.

If and when these two latest vaccines will receive emergency use authorization and be made available in Connecticut remains to be seen.

So Many Choices! (...Or Are There?)

If after doing careful research about each of the vaccines, taking into consideration all of the pros and cons, you've finally made up your mind which is the perfect one for you, state officials and health authorities advise you to forget it.

Lamont said it doesn't pay to parse percentages of the different vaccines. Instead, he urges residents to get inoculated with their first dose as quickly as possible. His words were echoed by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden, who told NBC's Meet the Press: "All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that's most available to them. People need to get vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible."