This story appeared in the Oakland Press. Read the full story here.
Somehow the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the third COVID-19 vaccine to be approved, seems to have acquired a lesser reputation than those from Pfizer and Moderna.
The efficacy ratings differed when each was approved by the Federal Drug Administration for emergency authorization use, but experts say the ratings of the three vaccines cannot be compared.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you can’t compare that Phase 3 trial to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine because they were done at different times and in different geographic areas,’’ said Veronica McNally, an Oakland County attorney who is a member of the Center for Disease Control’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Dr, Russell Faust, the medical director of the Oakland County Health Division, said the same thing during a county update video.
“I want to be very clear about this, the Pfizer and Moderna clinical trials ran many months ago toward the early part of this pandemic when there were no variants. Now everybody is hearing about these variants,’’ Faust said. “The J&J clinical trials have been run more recently. We’re really comparing apples to oranges. Despite that, the J&J vaccine has been very successful and has at least an 85% or better success rate at presenting severe disease and death which is really what this is about.’’
He said he would have no problem recommending the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to his family or he would take it if he hadn’t already been vaccinated.
McNally has not been vaccinated yet due to her age, but she said she would be good with any of the three.
“What people have heard is that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine are so effective at preventing symptomatic COVID, but we don’t get vaccinated because we don’t want to get a cold, we get vaccinated because we don’t want to die or don’t want to be hospitalized,’’ McNally said.
When they were approved, Pfizer’s efficacy was at 95% while Moderna’s was 94.1% in testing for symptomatic COVID infection. Johnson & Johnson was shown to be 85% protective against severe COVID disease.
While Pfizer and Moderna require two shots, Johnson & Johnson is a one-shot vaccine.
“All of the vaccines offer essentially the same effectiveness for the severe COVID-19 hospitalization and death,’’ McNally said. “There are going to be people who are very enticed by the fact that there is only one shot — people who want to be vaccinated quickly. who don’t want to return or can’t return for a second dose.’’