Which Vaccine Should You Get?

[liskddksil]

When there are multiple shots of varying effectiveness, take whatever is available to you first.

More vaccines are coming soon.

The one-dose coronavirus vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson will be reviewed on Friday by an advisory committee for the Food and Drug Administration, with authorization by the agency possible as early as Saturday. Assuming F.D.A. approves emergency use of the vaccine, which has been shown to strongly protect recipients against severe disease and death from the virus, there may soon be three different shots on the market in the United States. Another available vaccine for Covid-19 will be a welcome boost to the effort of getting people vaccinated faster.

While any approved vaccine has been deemed safe and effective, there’s a chance some vaccines may be more effective than others. You may wonder if you should hold out for what you perceive to be the very best vaccine, but the evidence suggests that we all should get the first vaccine available to us.

The data shows the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been 66 percent effective at preventing moderate and severe Covid-19, and has had a 72 percent overall efficacy rate in the United States. That is a bit lower than the measured effectiveness of over 90 percent in preventing symptomatic Covid-19 for the two-dose vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech.

This doesn’t mean that you should try to get one vaccine over the other. That’s for a couple of reasons: Getting as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible will save the most lives, and for any given person, a “less effective” vaccine will still provide substantial protection against severe Covid-19.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/26/opinion/us-covid-vaccines.html?

[WVreaper]

1. The first one that is available to you.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

2. As if we have an option.

This isn't Burger King.

[Ms. Toad]

14. You actually do have an option.

Ours are distributed by individual pharmacies - which each tend to have one or the other of the vaccines. When I am ultimately eligible, I will be signing up at pharmacies that have advertised that they are equipped to handle the Pfizer vaccine (and that have historically administered the Pfizer vaccine).

My spouse (slightly older) took the first slot available - it was Moderna (the one I would have chosen for her anyway) - but since she can't keep her mask on, getting someting - anythng - in her arm was much more critical.

But they don't just haul you in off the street. You choose a place to get vaccinated, and that will determine which vaccine you will receive.

[brush]

17. In most states and cities one doesn't have an option so when one is available...

sign up to get it asap.

[Ms. Toad]

28. Really?

You're just grabbed off the street - or randomly assigned to a specific provider?

Even once Ohio has a state-wide hub for signing up, you still sign up for a specific provider. As a general rule, that provider administers only one type of vaccine.

Since you can't sign up simultaneously for all providers, start with the one you prefer.

[brush]

31. In Las Vegas the Health District has a web site one signs up on but slots are hard to get.

Last week the slots at different locations were filled well into March.

At one time walk-ins were being offered at the Convention Center but that was shut down and appointments from the web site are now needed and you take which ever vaccine they have, no option.

[Ms. Toad]

33. "the slots at different locations"

So - if you care - you have the ability to research which location administers which vaccine and sign up for a slot at the location administering the vaccine you prefer.

Again - I'm not dictating that anyone should care. Just that if you DO care, you can resesarch and sign up for a slot at a location administering the vaccine you prefer.

For my spouse - who can't keep her mask on around friends and family - I would have grabbed the first slot available.

For myself - my main risk is that my spouse will catch COVID from her friends or family and bring it home to me. (I have been unmasked inside with someone I do not live with a grand total of 11 times since March 2020. 8 of those were for dental/medical care.

She will be fully vaccinated on March 10, so with the main threat to my health dramatically decreased by March 17 (likely before I am even eligible in my state) I can afford to wait a bit longer. I won't wait much longer - aside from waiting for Pfizer or Moderna. But my attempts to sign up will start with those places administering Pfizer.

[brush]

35. Here there is no option as to which one to get. You take what the vaccination center has.

And be grateful to get it. Moderna and Pfizer are both around 95% effective so what does it matter?

[Ms. Toad]

41. And you only have one vaccination center to go to?

If there is more than one vaccination center within driving distance, you can choose the vaccination center - which chooses the vaccine.

There are differences between the vaccinations in terms of quantity administered, likelihood of anaphalyxis, likelihood of local reaction, and frequency/nature of side effects.

If it doesn't matter to you - fantastic! I am not suggesting it SHOULD matter to anyone. Just that this "I don't have a choice" is not accurate.

I do have a slight preference between Moderna and Pfizer, and a strong preference for either of those over the Johnson & Johnson. So I will definitely be exercising my option to choose between the former two and the latter one, and I will be prioritizing which sites I try to sign up on first as between the former two.

There's a difference between can't choose and any vaccine is more important than exercising that choice.

[brush]

45. Again, most people don't have a choice as getting an available slot on web sites...

is difficult as they are snapped up quickly. People are logging on or calling for days trying to get a slot because they fill up fast and you get whatever vaccine the place you're lucky enough to get is offering. In Vegas there are a few sites but you take which ever one they have.

It's only a small percentage of people who have a reaction. I'm glad the Biden admin is getting the vaccine out to the states as trump didn't do anything.

[Ms. Toad]

46. I'm not disputing the difficulty of exercising your choice

But that is not the same thing as not having a choice.

When the site administering the vaccine you want (if you have a preference) has no more slots - but there is a slot open on a site administering a vaccine you prefer less, it is your choice whether to keep waiting for a slot on the first site or to take the open slot on the second site. It's perfectly legitimate to not care about choosing because the differences are so slight that you don't care. But it is not factual to say you don't have a choice. You can choose to wait until a site administering Pfizer (if that is your choice) is available - and that choice carries personal consequences (potentially later vaccination, acquiring COVID before you can get vaccinated, etc.). But since the vaccine is going in someone's arm (even if it's not yours), there are not (at this stage) societal consequences to choosing to wait for a slot at a site administering your preference.

I would choose to wait a significant amount of time (months) to avoid the J&J vaccine. I wouldn't choose to wait very long (no more than 2 weeks) to find Pfizer over Moderna.

It's not just the reaction - but it does play a role in hoping for Moderna for my spouse (she is allergic to everything under the sun, and then some). If anyone will have an anaphalactic reaction, it would be her. (She has had her first dose of Moderna - although for her - since she is not good at protecting herself or her famiiy - it was far more important to get any vaccine in her than to choose which one).

Moderna is more likely to produce a local reaction than a systemic one - and Moderna appears to provide better protection after the first dose (again, better for my spouse who can't keep her mask on around friends and relatives). Pfizer has demonstrated more efficacy in the over 65 age range. Since I'm close enough to shake a stick at 65, that gives Pfizer a slight edge as far as I'm concerned. Pfizer delivers 30 micrograms of vaccine - Moderna delivers 100. They have similar efficacies, so I prefer a lower dosage that creates a similar immunity.

Not a whole lot of difference, but if I have a choice that isn't tied to an unreasonable delay, I'll choose Pfizer. Since I have precisely one known allergy, I'lll trade the lower dose and documented better efficacy in the 65+ age range for a slightly higher possibility of anaphalactic reaction.

[LisaL]

19. They don't tell you for which vaccine you are signing up when you sign up, as far as I can tell.

I guess with pharmacies you could call and ask.

[Ms. Toad]

29. A google search will tell you which vaccines most of them are administering

So far, each of the providers I've researched I have been able to tell. And since my preference is for Pfizer, many made a big stink about getting the freezers capable of handling it.

I'm sorting that out ahead of time, so when the website(s) start accepting my registration I'll start with the providers administering Pfizer.

(You're right about them not announcing on their website - and most people don't care.)

[ForgoTheConsequence]

21. We don't have an option.

Not every county is rolling this out the same. My partner showed up, they had the Moderna vaccine, that's what she got.

[Ms. Toad]

30. Showed up where?

Was there more than one vaccination site in the county? Is there at least one adjacent county in your state?

Every place I am aware of requires an advance sign up. Most places have more than one provider. But even if your county doesn't have more than one, adjacent counties almost certainly have other providers.

If you care which vaccination you get, do your research, find out which companies are administering which vaccine, and sign up for that provider.

I'm not suggesting you SHOULD care - I'm just challenging the notion that you have no choice.

[ForgoTheConsequence]

38. Multiple vaccination clinics in my county

But her clinic was for health care workers. They called and told her the time and place. Again, most people do not have an option as of yet.

[Ms. Toad]

40. Aside from work-related vaccinations

or those administered in long term care facilities, people do have options.

It may mean a longer wait. It may mean a drive to get there. It may mean foregoing your favorite pharmacy. But unless you are part of a captive audience, you have options.

[SlogginThroughIt]

3. The one that is available to you.

[Hekate]

4. The first one available. I told the nurse I was thrilled beyond words when I got my first jab on Mon

It was Moderna. I was a bit surprised that I literally felt nothing when I was injected. They must be using needles as fine as a hair these days — it’s amazing how they can get one of those chips through it (haha).

[Bleacher Creature]

6. I keep waiting for the Star Trek injection guns that don't penetrate the skin.

[FSogol]

8. They had those in the past. They didn't work that well.

Here's a Wash Post article on them.

Rather than deliver each inoculation via a separate needle-tipped syringe, this device held hundreds of doses in a reservoir. And it didn’t use a needle — it used compressed air to push the vaccine through the skin. Medics pressed it against each soldier’s bare upper arm and pulled the trigger.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/vietnam-era-draftees-may-recall-inoculations-without-needles-they-were-fast/2021/02/01/5ef02080-64a5-11eb-8c64-9595888caa15_story.html

[hamsterjill]

11. Micro needle patches are on the horizon.

I’m watching hopefully being the needle phobe that I am. These patches would revolutionize medical care.

[Bleacher Creature]

5. It's not a menu. Get whichever one you can as soon as you are eligible.

Stopping the virus from replicating is priority one, particularly since all three vaccines are effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.

[Arkansas Granny]

7. I didn't know which vaccine I was going to get until I got it. I would have taken any of them.

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. When did they offer choices?

Take what they give you and be grateful.

[LisaL]

10. I've seen some opinions that younger people should get Johnson and Johnson.

But it's not like we are being offered a choice at the moment.

[babylonsister]

12. Holding out for sugar cubes.

Not really; I'm waiting my turn which will hopefully be soon.

[hamsterjill]

13. I'm hoping for the one shot J&J.

I have a very real fear of injections, and basically, just don’t do them. Please don’t tell me “you’ll be okay”. This isn’t a minor fear. It’s a brain thing and there is no amount of assurance that will help me. It will be very hard for me to go through this.

That said, getting stuck once is more appealing to me than twice. I’m not an anti-vaxxer. I believe in the science. It’s just that the terror is overwhelming.

I don’t wish to cause an issue for the medical staff giving the injections or cause others waiting in line to have to wait for me to be assisted or become afraid from being near me. I wish they’d make vaccines available to private physicians for people like me.

[LisaL]

15. J&J also has fewer side effects compared to other two.

NT

[hamsterjill]

18. That part is also appealing to me.

n/t

[LisaL]

20. To me as well.

But it's not like I am able to select. I have no eligibility for any at the moment.

[hamsterjill]

23. Likewise.

But when I do have eligibility, I intend to be an informed participant. I am not yet convinced that the vaccines are completely safe because not enough time has elapsed for data to be collected on those who have received the vaccine. Please understand that I know it’s the best we’ve got right now. We do what we can and what we must.

But I will not be surprised if, in ten years, there are very clearly long term side effects from these vaccines. It’s very simply a time factor. Not a malicious intent.

[brush]

36. Only a very small percentage of people have any side effects.

One even has to wait fifteen minutes, with a timer before leaving, after getting the shot to see if there's reaction. I've had both shots and no reactions to either. The first shot I didn't even feel it. The second one felt like a shot going in but that was it, and nothing later. I got Pfizer but a buddy of mine got Moderna and he had no reactions either.

[Withywindle]

47. My dad in his late 70s had symptoms after his second shot of the Pfizer

Weakness and mild aches. He slept it off and he was fine the next day. My mom, in her early 70s, had no symptoms at all for either shot.

I can't express how relieved I am, after a whole year of worrying about my parents so much.

I'm 51 and I will take the first shot available to me. I don't have a frontline job but I am a former smoker so I'm in Group 4 here, not the very last group. Teachers and retail workers are ahead of me in line, that's fine, as it should be.

[11 Bravo]

16. My daughter-in-law (a nurse in a Covid unit at a Charlottesville, VA hospital) ...

recommends the Moderna vaccine.

[Ms. Toad]

26. Why?

I had decided Moderna was better for my spouse - but Pfizer would be better for me. Just curious as to why a blanket Moderna recommendation.

[Ms. Toad]

22. I am shocked at the number of people in this thread

asserting there is no choice.

There is. You may have to work diligently to find out how to make the choice (if it matters to you). But they don't grab you off the street and stick a needle in your arm. You sign up with a specific provider, who administers a specific vaccine. My preference is for Pfizer, so the moment my age group is eligible, I will be online at pharmacies who administer the Pfizer vaccine. If I'm not successful there, I'll try to sign up at a pharmacies that administers Moderna. I'll wait for one of those two, since there is a dramatic difference in effectiveness between J&J and the other two.

With the pre-existing conditions I have (cancer x 2 or 3, diabetes), I don't want a 6/10 chance I won't get it. I want a 9+/10 chance I won't get it. The biggest threat to me is my spouse (who doesn't mask when she fairly reglarly eats with friends). I have been unmasked inside with individuals I don't live with a grand total of 11 times since March 2020; 7 of them for dental work or post-surgery. I mask at home 24/7 and sleep separtely whenever she acts like an idiot. (this is the 3rd time I've had to do that since March 2020. She will be fully vaccinated with Moderna on 3/10. The most recent small study out of the UK suggested mRNA vaccines prevent all disease (not just symptomatic disease), the threat of transmission from an asymptomatic case of COVID from her will be near zero as of 3/17.

As long as I've waited, as careful as I am, I can wait a bit longer for Pfizer (my preference) or Moderna (my second choice). If Johnson & Johnson were the only game in town, I'd get it rather than nothing (my threshold was at least 50% effective + safe based on peer reviewed studies). But it's not. So I'll hold out for one of the two that are far more effective.

[LisaL]

24. I agree. Right now picking between the two vaccines is not that important, since

Moderna and Pfizer appear to be very similar in terms of effectiveness. When J&J comes on board, there will be a difference.
So it will become a concern if you can't find out ahead of time which vaccine you will be getting.

[Ms. Toad]

27. So far I've been able to figure out who is giving which vaccine. n/t

[stopdiggin]

25. THE FIRST ONE OFFERED ! -- Thanks.

In many areas just getting an appointment is like winning the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes.

(One can HOPE that some sort of organization, and actually program, will eventually descend. But, as yet, there is virtually no sign of it.)

[Chakaconcarne]

32. Don't expect to have a choice if you want the first available opportunity to get it.

Take what you can get and feel fortunate.

[Paladin]

34. My wife got Pfizer. I got Moderna.

We're both very happy.

[beaglelover]

37. I'll take whatever the first one is that's available to me. No questions asked.

[mnhtnbb]

39. The County Department of Public Health

which administered the Moderna vaccine which I received has been receiving BOTH vaccines. The day I got my first shot they were giving Moderna. However, people who were in line for their second shots were being asked which vaccine and then directed to stations where nurses were giving the vaccine that would match the person's first shot, whether Moderna or Pfizer. This was an exceptionally well organized Dept of Public Health for a highly populated (blue) county in North Carolina.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

42. Is wild blackberry flavor available yet? With just a dab of honey, please.

[liskddksil]

43. Just like medicine, I prefer vaccines unflavored lol nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

44. I'll take any I can get. Even "Sputnik V", approved or not. nt