COVID-19: Study compares the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines
By: Timothy Huzar (Medical News Today)
Information is being published in dribs and drabs that are widely scattered. And information that has been made available has always been couched in the need for more study. The study presented here has been based mostly upon cases before the Omicron variant so the information is already obsolete. By the time data is analyzed for the Omicron variant a new variant will be circulating. So, this is sort of like medical astronomy; we're only seeing the past, and making projections for the future based on that past, while ignoring the present.
The CDC is currently reporting that 211 million people have been fully vaccinated. Using the numbers presented by the reported study in the seed article, 500,000 of those fully vaccinated people will experience COVID-19 symptoms from new infections. 80,000 of those fully vaccinated will require hospitalization. New cases among the fully vaccinated can still overwhelm our medical system.
The take away is that even with full vaccination the case numbers for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and COVID-19 will still be worse than case numbers for influenza. Of course, that still requires more study.
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
- The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have been highly effective at preventing COVID-19.
- In a new study, researchers looked at the differences in effectiveness between the two vaccines.
- They found that people who had received two doses of the Moderna vaccine were less likely to develop COVID-19 or become hospitalized with the illness than people who had received the Pfizer vaccine.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines are messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccines — a relatively new type of vaccine technology.
These COVID-19 vaccines work by providing our cells with instructions for making a SARS-CoV-2 protein. Our immune system then reacts to these proteins and develops the tools to respond to any infection with the virus in the future.
Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have found that both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are very effective at protecting people from COVID-19.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky points to "accumulating evidence that mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are effective and should prevent most infections." She adds that "Fully vaccinated people who still get COVID-19 are likely to have milder, shorter illness and appear to be less likely to spread the virus to others."
"These benefits are another important reason to get vaccinated."
89 million people
In the latest study, researchers investigated the differences in rates of "breakthrough" cases of COVID-19 among people who received the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. A breakthrough case is when the disease develops in someone who has been fully vaccinated against it.
The team was also interested in any differences between rates of hospitalization and death due to COVID-19 among people who received either vaccine.
For their analysis, the researchers drew on health records from 89 million people in the United States. The data included people with a wide range of demographic characteristics.
The team looked at data taken between July and November 2021, when the Delta variant of COVID-19 was the main variant of the virus.
The results appear as a research letter in JAMA.
Lower risk with Moderna
The researchers found that in November 2021, there were 2.8 breakthrough cases of COVID-19 in people fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine per 1,000 people. They included breakthrough cases if the people had not received the booster vaccination or had not had a prior recorded infection with SARS-CoV-2.
For the Moderna vaccine, the monthly figure was significantly lower, at 1.6 breakthrough cases per 1,000 people who received these shots.
The risk of hospitalization in the 60 days after infection was also lower for people fully vaccinated with the Moderna vaccine: 12.7% for Moderna versus 13.3% for Pfizer.
The researchers did not see a significant difference in mortality rates between the two vaccine groups.
Medical News Today spoke with Dr. Rong Xu, a professor of biomedical informatics at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine and the corresponding author of the new study.
Dr. Xu noted, "We compared recipients of these two vaccines while accounting for patient risk factors, different approval time, and varying time from vaccination."
"I think that inherent difference in these two vaccines may have partially accounted for the observed difference in both breakthrough infection and hospitalization."
Dr. Xu thought that both vaccines would continue to be effective against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2.
"My speculation is that we can expect that vaccines are effective against severe clinical outcomes associated with Omicron variant infections, as studies showed that vaccines can elicit T cell immunity, which may offer protection against Omicron. We will conduct a similar study for [SARS-CoV-2] infection with Omicron," Dr. Xu said.
Dr. Pamela B. Davis, the Arline and Curtis Garvin research professor at the Center for Community Health Integration and a co-author of the study, highlights that "Although there is a difference in breakthrough infections, both vaccines are highly protective against SARS-CoV-2 infection and especially against the most severe consequences of infection."
"Further studies are required to assess the results of booster doses and also the protection afforded especially vulnerable populations by vaccines."
Tags
Who is online
466 visitors
An analysis of COVID case numbers when the Delta variant was predominant indicates that the SARS-CoV-2 virus will cause higher case numbers after mass vaccination than does influenza. We won't have information about the Omicron variant until the current surge has receded. An analysis of vaccine effectiveness against Omicron requires case data of those who have been infected and that analysis will be too late to be useful. So, we're stuck in a cycle of planning for the future using obsolete data.
This is like medical astronomy or medical climate science. We're seeing the past and making predictions for the future while ignoring the present.
Nerm,
Do you understand how a metastudy works? You have to look at the past information and do analysis to gain knowledge o how to proceed. You can't guess on how something will work.
They are studying Omicron, but the story is not told yet.
Yes, I do understand how a metastudy works. That's obvious because you've repeated what I've already said.
The reported metastudy tells us how effective the vaccines were (past tense) against the Delta variant. But the Omicron variant isn't the Delta variant. So, we are proceeding on obsolete information and guessing that the vaccines work the same against Omicron. And we won't know how effective the vaccines were against Omicron until the current surge has passed.
These metastudies are much like astronomy. We only see the past. And knowledge of that past only allows prediction of events that have already happened; we just haven't observed what has already happened. Both the knowledge and predictions are obsolete.
Nerm,
They are gathering information on Omicron. You can't do a study on incomplete information. But it will be hard information and that is what counts.
I have no idea what you are talking about with astronomy. Of course you can only see the past, but from the past, we can tell a lot of what is going on in terms of expansion, star life, etc. Unless you are a fortune-teller, you can't tell what the future holds.
Obviously we all wish we could see into the future, but we can’t. Do you have an alternative in mind?
The useful information is what is happening now. We can't wait for a metastudy performed after the surge. As we've seen during this pandemic, what has happened isn't that useful for guiding response to what is happening.
The reported study tells us that the vaccines were (past tense) effective against the Delta variant. But that information isn't particularly useful in responding to the Omicron variant. Even with this information we're still guessing what to do now.
Why ever not? We use information from the past to guide our future behavior in almost everything we do. Data about the past may not answer every question you have about the present, but it can still answer some questions.
Are you suggesting we should just not pay any attention to the results of innoculation?
Past performance does not guarantee future success.
The Omicron surge began after the range of data included in the reported study. And the Omicron surge has blown away all the data obtained from prior variants. Why do you think the Biden administration was unprepared for the Omicron surge? Why should we believe that the number of 'breakthrough' infections has not dramatically increased?
The reported study tells us that the vaccines were affective against the Delta variant. But real world, real time data shows us that the Omicron variant is completely different.
Who said anything about a guarantee?
It’s not completely different. The vaccines still appear to be effective at helping to prevent (not guaranteed) serious illness, hospitalization, and death.
How about studies for those of us who have some natural immunity from having had Covid, both Moderna shots, and the booster?
And what about natural immunity imparted by a breakthrough case?
Thanks Perrie!
And if you only got the J&J shot, just hide in the basement.