New findings on the effectiveness of Moderna, Pfizer and J&J vaccines

New research in the US shows that the Moderna vaccine is more effective than the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines in reducing the risk of hospitalization in people with Covid-19.

Research on three Covid-19 vaccines shows the effectiveness of the Moderna vaccine leading the fight against the current pandemic, CNN reported on September 17.

Specifically, the Pfizer vaccine was 88% effective in protecting people with Covid-19 from hospitalization, while Moderna's was 93% . Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine ranked third, providing 71% protection .

New research shows that the Moderna vaccine is more effective than the Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. (Photo: Reuters).

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) worked with scientists across the country to look at 3,689 Covid-19 patients at 21 hospitals in 18 states in the study. They also looked at antibodies in the blood of 100 healthy volunteers after they had received one of three vaccines.

"Among non-immunocompromised adults in the United States, the Moderna vaccine was more effective at preventing hospitalizations from COVID-19 between March 11 and August 15 than the Pfizer/BioNTech (88%) and Janssen (71%) vaccines ," the team wrote in the CDC's weekly report.

'While these real-world data show that vaccines provide varying degrees of protection, all FDA-approved vaccines provide significant protection, resulting in reduced hospitalizations.'

Additionally, the researchers found the biggest difference was in the drop in effectiveness that began about four months after people were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine.

'The efficacy of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was 91% in the first 14-120 days after the second dose, but dropped significantly to 77% after 120 days,' the team wrote.

" The difference in vaccine efficacy between Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech could be due to the higher mRNA content in the Moderna vaccine ," he said. " It could also come from the difference in the time interval between shots (3 weeks for the Pfizer vaccine and 4 weeks for Moderna), or the groups of people vaccinated.

However, the study had some limitations as it did not consider other subjects such as children and adults with impaired immune systems. In addition, the volunteers were only monitored for more than half a year.