Pfizer - BioNTech is the most common vaccine in the US to begin with. J&J - Janssen is the least common, but also the least difficult to handle.
Perhaps if you want a booster, but want to be “nice” about it, go to a vaccine place at the end of the day and ask if they have partial vials of thawed vaccine that will be wasted if not used.
If you received Johnson and Johnson, and went and got a booster of Moderna or Pfizer, what would you do (or actually do) about the second Moderna or Pfizer shot? go ahead and get it, just stop after the first booster?
I read somewhere that getting FDA approval on the original vax makes it much easier to approve boosters and/or new versions for specific variants. Don’t know if that’s accurate - anyone know?
Yes that’s true
If it is true that vaccines for variants would have a quicker route to approval, then it is odd that vaccine companies are not quicker to make vaccines for variants.
Perhaps they are not profitable.
Could be for a variety of reason: so many variants, hard to stay on top of them all. As long as the current vaccines offer adequate protection. Plus they’re still making vaccines for less developed nations. The important thing would be being able to get a booster out quickly to cover a variant that the current vaccine is inadequate for.
The way people in this thread are so anxious about how their own vaccination is inadequate to protect them suggests that a vaccine optimized for Delta would be better. Even if vaccine-derived immunity fades, starting vaccine-derived immunity at a higher baseline by using vaccines optimized for Delta (and other variants of concern) rather than the (probably extinct) ancestral virus would mean that boosters would not be needed as often.
Agreed. And the chart that TexasTiger posted earlier shows that the Moderna ‘booster’ specific to Delta had a much more robust action in the body. (1400 vs. 864, altho we have no idea what any of those numbers mean in actual practice!)
The image refers to a Moderna vaccine for Beta / B.1.351, not Delta / B.1.617.2, though in principle, a vaccine optimized for the specific variant will do better against that variant than a vaccine for the ancestral virus.
Beta / B.1.351 is the variant of concern that seems to be the most evasive of current vaccines, although it does not seem to be able to outcompete Delta / B.1.617.2 in spreading.
my bad, thanks for the correction.
@sabaray Was your Dr recommending just one booster shot of either Moderna or Pfizer or the 2 shot series?
I may have been wrong thinking that getting boosters is not a thing. I just had a Facebook friend post that they had gotten their second, second, ie booster, shot. I don’t think it’s a great idea for people to be just going out and doing that, but I’m not sure why except that I like things to be orderly!
Story about the WHO telling people not to get a thrid shot until more of the world has gotten their initial vaccinations - COVID Vaccine Booster Moratorium Proposed By WHO : Goats and Soda : NPR
Moderna now says that their vaccine’s effectiveness does not wane at 6 months. The same article says Pfizer’s info is from only one study and could be an artiifact. More studies are needed. At this point I think boosters should only go to those who are truly immunocompromised.
One shot of Moderna or Pfizer.
Well anther aricle says that Moderna says boosters will be needed before the winter season. Moderna Says Third COVID Vaccine Booster Shot ‘Likely To Be Necessary’ This Fall Due To Delta Variant (msn.com)
This article still cites 93% effectiveness at 6 months but a different spin on boosters.
Just another morning reading articles that contradict each other on COVID!!
One could always get one’s antibodies checked to see if they are waning prior to another shot.
Booster specific to Delta, or booster of the same vaccine against the ancestral virus?
This is possible for many vaccine preventable diseases, but does not seem to be done generally, since an additional vaccine dose may cost less than checking antibodies. It may be done for situations like health care workers where it is considered more important to see if vaccines were effective.