JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A new study shows that the Moderna vaccine is more effective at keeping people out of the hospital with COVID-19 than the Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer vaccines.
Researchers found that Moderna’s vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization was 93%, while the effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson vaccines was 88% and 71%, respectively.
Lise Everly received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine early this year and she said it has potentially saved her life.
Everly said she went to an event that allowed people who were vaccinated to go in without a mask and she was exposed to someone with COVID-19.
“We had a lengthy conversation standing close together I didn’t think anything of it because she wasn’t wearing a mask,” Everly said.
Everly said she later found out she wasn’t vaccinated either when she was contact traced.
But she said she didn’t develop any COVID symptoms despite being close to the woman without a mask.
“I laid low for several days and I felt fine,” Everly said.
The woman who exposed her was in the ICU and intubated for a month.
A local infectious disease specialist said that both Pfizer and Moderna are mRNA vaccines but the Moderna could have more antibodies.
Dr. Mohammed Reza told News4Jax there was a study in Israel that showed people with the Pfizer vaccine had the neutralizing antibody decrease over time.
For the Moderna study, researchers assessed data from more than 3,600 hospitalized adults across 21 hospitals in 18 states from March 2021 through the middle of August.
Dr. Reza did say the study didn’t survey anyone that’s immunocompromised. He said although Moderna had the highest percentage, all of those numbers are still high and reduce the chances of people getting severely ill from COVID-19.
In Duval County, 61% of people 12 and older have received one dose but Reza said it still needs to increase.
“This is the time we really need to put our foot on that accelerator on vaccinating people because as cooler season comes around as the flu virus comes through our communities, this is the time you want to take as much precaution and protect yourselves because we know how effective these vaccines are, they work,” he said.