3 Vaccines Now Available In PA: How Are They Different?

PENNSYLVANIA — The new single-dose Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine arrived in Pennsylvania earlier this month to much fanfare, as it brought sweeping changes to the state's policy on immunizing teachers and school staff.

With the latest approval of an emergency use authorization from the FDA last weekend, there are now three COVID-19 vaccines in circulation in the United States and in Pennsylvania: Pfizer-Biotech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.

As the number of available vaccines grow, so do questions about their comparative efficacy and any relevant differences.

Here's a look at some common questions and answers about the differences between the three coronavirus vaccines:

How effective is each vaccine?

All three vaccines are highly effective in preventing coronavirus, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said this week that it doesn't 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 Pennsylvania Department of Health says that Pfizer is 95 percent effective and Moderna is 94.1 effective in preventing infection. The FDA's early trials of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine show it to be 86 percent effective overall.

But the more important figure may be how effective they are in stopping more serious outcomes.

"It's 100 percent effective in terms of preventing hospitalization, it's 100 percent effective in terms of preventing hospitalization and death," Gov. Wolf said.

An Atlantic profile warns that the studies for the vaccines are too small to say that with perfect confidence, and that downplaying the risk of potential illness after receiving the vaccine could have consequences, such as giving high-risk groups a false sense of invulnerability.

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

No. Fauci and state officials have 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. However, the efficacy rates for all three vaccines are very high.

"I don't think it makes a lot of sense to try to shop around for the vaccine," said Dr. Ben Singer, assistant professor of medicine in pulmonary and critical care at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine "Because remember — the efficacy of not getting the vaccine is zero. So if you wait, and you get COVID, that means that you didn't receive the benefit of whatever vaccine you would have been able to get."

The results of the Johnson & Johnson clinical trial, which included participants in eight countries including Brazil, South Africa and five Latin American counties, 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.

"It's not the weaker vaccine," Fauci said of Johnson & Johnson.

Pennsylvania State Rep. Bridget M. Kosierowski, a nurse and member of the state's bipartisan joint task force which recommends vaccine policy, said that the focus should be kept on preventing serious illness, not just percentage rates of effectiveness.

"The vaccine is effective, whether its Moderna, Pfizer, or Johnson & Johnson," she said in a news briefing Wednesday. "The vaccine's main goal is to keep you from getting ill from COVID-19, and to keep you out of our hospitals, out of our ICUs, and off of ventilators."

Are there any other notable differences between the three vaccines?

The biggest difference between the three vaccines is that Johnson & Johnson only requires a single dose.

Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines require two doses. For Moderna, these shots should be given 28 days apart, according to the CDC. For Pfizer, the recommended timeframe is 21 days.

Johnson & Johnson and Moderna are safe for people aged 18 and older, while Pfizer is certified for those aged 16 and older.

Further, the Pfizer vaccine requires specialized ultra-cold storage, which is not available in some rural parts of the state. This means that these locations may primarily receive Pfizer doses, at least in the early stages of the vaccine rollout until more ultra-cold storage units are available.

Johnson & Johnson requires even less prolonged refrigeration than either vaccine, so in the most remote sites, this could eventually become the preferred vaccine.

How are they being used differently in Pennsylvania?

Pfizer-Biotech was the first vaccine to be approved, so it has been in circulation for the longest amount of time in the state.

Currently, both Pfizer and Moderna are being used interchangeably by the state to vaccine healthcare workers and those in the 1A priority category. These are the doses being shipped weekly to some 200 county health departments, pharmacies, and healthcare providers statewide.

The Johnson & Johnson doses — 124,600 were received last week, and 4 million are expected in Pennsylvania by the end of March — will be used to vaccinate roughly 200,000 teachers and other school employees first. The state hopes to complete this process by mid-April.

What are the concerns with the vaccines?

All three vaccines have been approved as safe by the FDA and are being touted by the top infectious disease experts in the country as safe.

The biggest concern 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 strains are ongoing.

Will there be even more vaccines available soon?

In all likelihood, yes. There are two vaccines currently in phase 3 clinical trials, according to the Department of Health: AstraZeneca and Novavax.

The timeline for when these will receive emergency use authorization and become available to Pennsylvania remains murky.

With reporting from Patch correspondent Jonah Meadows

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