Pfizer and Moderna, vaccines developed with messenger RNA to fight COVID, have been considered by the majority of the population to be identical injections. However, it is not so, but there are differences between both. In fact, an investigation carried out with a sample of 384,246 people in Qatar shows that Moderna protects longer against the virus than Pfizer.
The results of this study, published this week in the journal ‘The New England Journal of Medicine‘, show that Moderna’s injections lose efficacy later than Pfizer’s, a decrease in protection that has been evident in the sixth wave. Nevertheless, the adverse effects of the former are also greater than those of the second.
Due to this loss of efficiency, the third dose has become indispensable, not so much in healthy young people but especially in people at risk. However, the choice between one vaccine and another, both for the primary vaccination doses and for the booster injection, does not depend on the patient, but on the availability of them at each vaccination point.
44% more infections
Specifically, Moderna’s vaccine provides 120 days after the second dose an efficacy equivalent to that given by Pfizer after 90 days. In the medium term, the difference is greater: 180 days in the first and 130 days in the second. This distance can be very important to stop infections in certain territories.
The research data shows that people inoculated with Pfizer are infected 44% more than those vaccinated with Moderna. In total, 1,262 of those who had the first were infected, while ‘only’ 878 of those who had two doses of the second were infected. Six months after receiving the second injection, the risk of contracting the disease with Moderna (1 in 168) is 31% lower than in the other case (1 in 119).
Although Moderna also reduces the number of people who need intensive care (3 vs. Pfizer’s 7), “both vaccines induced strong protection against COVID hospitalization and death“, assure the scientists. However, the study does not mention the Omicron variant nor does it include the effects of the booster dose.
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