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

NEW JERSEY — As of last week, the Garden State now has access to three COVID-19 vaccines following the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of an emergency use authorization for the new single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson on Feb. 27.

The arrival of the third vaccine marks several regulation shifts around certain activities in New Jersey, from an increase in indoor dining capacity to the reopening of entertainment venues and sports complexes. Read more: NJ To Open Up Sports, Entertainment Venues Amid COVID

But as more New Jersey residents become eligible for the vaccine, public interest in the differences in vaccine efficacy and their ingredients is also on the rise.

State officials recognized this when they started to see a growing trend of people opting out of appointments for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Moderna vaccines, choosing to wait for the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine instead. State Health Commissioner Judy Persichilli on Monday urged people to take whatever appointment they can get. Read more: NJ Health Commissioner: Take First COVID Vaccine You Can Get

See below for frequently asked questions (and answers) about the differences between the three available coronavirus vaccines:

Which vaccine is the most effective?

All three vaccines are highly effective in preventing COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Recently, the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, agreed that it doesn't necessarily matter which vaccine you receive and that people should not hesitate to get whichever vaccine they can.

"All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that's most available to them," Fauci told NBC's "Meet the Press." "People need to get vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible."

The New Jersey Department of Health said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 95 percent effective and that Moderna is 94.1 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people without evidence of previous infection. The FDA's early trials of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine showed it to be 86 percent effective overall.

The Pfizer vaccine is a two-dose series to be separated by 21 days; it was approved by the FDA in December 2020. The Moderna vaccine is to be administered in two doses 28 days apart; it was also approved by the FDA in December 2020.

The Pfizer vaccine was approved for people ages 16 and older, while the Moderna vaccine was approved for those ages 18 years and older. Both are mRNA vaccines, which, when injected, instruct cells how to make a protein to trigger a specific immune response. The immune response thus produces antibodies to protect the recipient from getting infected with the real virus.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a viral vector vaccine, is for people ages 18 years and older. Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus. The J&J shot uses a virus (not the virus that causes COVID-19, but a harmless virus) that enters a cell in the recipient’s body. It uses the cell to produce a harmless segment of the virus that causes COVID-19.

The J&J vaccine is a single-dose shot that can be stored in a refrigerator between 36°F and 46°F; the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require significantly colder temperatures to be stored.

"The importance of having a third highly effective vaccine in our toolkit, especially one that requires only one dose and that can be stored in regular refrigeration, cannot be overstated," Gov. Phil Murphy said. "This is a game-changer to get more shots in arms as with everything else we just need the supply."

Should there be concern about Johnson & Johnson's slightly lower rate?

Fauci has warned in the past not to compare the efficacy rates of vaccines, as trials are carried out in varying circumstances with different groups of people. The efficacy rates for all three vaccines remain very high.

“It’s a mistake to compare apples to oranges,” Murphy said at a press conference last week, citing comparisons between the vaccines. Persichilli added that vaccines were not studied against each other in a lab and, therefore, should not be compared to each other.

The results of the Johnson & Johnson clinical trial include participants in eight countries including Brazil, South Africa and five Latin American countries, and the vaccine was 85 percent effective in preventing severe cases of the disease across all regions within 28 days. Zero severe cases were reported 50 or more days after vaccination, and there were zero cases of COVID-19-related hospitalizations or deaths after 28 days.

Infectious disease experts are also saying that efficacy is not the only factor that matters — it’s also how many people get vaccinated.

"It's not the weaker vaccine. They are all three really good vaccines," Fauci said of the Johnson & Johnson doses. "If you go to a place and you have J&J and that's the one that's available now, I would take it. I personally would do the same thing. I think people need to get vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible."

How are vaccines being used differently in New Jersey?

Pfizer-BioNTech 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 New Jersey to vaccine front-line workers and other eligible categories. Read more: Where To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In New Jersey

Murphy announced last week that 70,000 initial doses will be shipped to the Garden State by the end of the week. In addition, CVS and Rite Aid will be allocated an initial 22,500 doses from J&J through the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program.

Some vaccination sites such as ShopRite are sorting locations by brand of vaccine, according to the grocery store chain’s vaccine appointment scheduler. Thirty-nine ShopRite Pharmacy locations offer Moderna doses, while another 30 ShopRite Pharmacy locations are ready to administer Johnson & Johnson doses.

Read more:

• Weis Markets Offering COVID-19 Vaccinations In NJ: See Where
• Wegmans Begins COVID Vaccinations: Where, When, Who's Eligible
• CVS Expands COVID Vaccination Sites To 163 NJ Locations

What are the concerns with the vaccines?

All three vaccines have been approved as safe by the FDA and are lauded by state officials and infectious disease experts as safe.

The biggest concern right now is the potential for the vaccine to be less effective against new variants of the virus, which have already emerged in the United Kingdom, Brazil and South Africa. Tests to determine the resistance of the vaccines to these other variants are ongoing.

Will there be even more vaccines available soon?

Yes. There are currently two vaccines in Phase 3 clinical trials, according to the Department of Health. Those vaccines are Oxford-AstraZeneca and Novavax. With the AstraZeneca vaccine, clinical trials found that the vaccine had an efficacy of 82.4 percent when two doses were given in a span of 12 weeks, 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.

The Novavax vaccine works by teaching an immune system to make antibodies to a spike protein. In January, Novavax announced that in British trials, the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 89 percent, according to the Times. Doses can also stay up to three months in a refrigerator.

If and when the vaccines will receive emergency use authorization to New Jerseyans remains to be seen.

For more information on the COVID-19 vaccination in New Jersey, visit Patch's information hub.

With reporting by Justin Heinze.