A team of researchers from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard T. H. Chan School of public health recently published a study that finds the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is slightly more effective than the Pfizer vaccine.
The study was published online Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine.
“Compared with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine has a slightly lower risk of COVID-19 outcomes, including documented SARS-CoV-2 infection, symptomatic COVID-19, and COVID-19-related hospitalization, intensive care unit admission, and death, over a 24-week period,” a team of researchers said.
According to the study, the 24-week risk of Covid-19 outcomes was low after vaccination with mRNA-1273 or BNT162b2, although risks were lower with mRNA-1273 than with BNT162b2. This pattern was consistent across periods marked by alpha- and delta-variant predominance.
“Given the high effectiveness of both vaccines, either one is strongly recommended to any individual offered the choice between the two,” said first author Barbra Dickerman, CAUSALab investigator and instructor in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard Chan School. “However, this large-scale study allowed us to detect subtle differences between these two highly effective vaccines. While the identified differences in estimated risk were small on the absolute scale, they may be meaningful for larger decision-making bodies, such as health care systems and higher-level organizations, when considering the large population-scale at which these vaccines are deployed.”
“That said, any choice between vaccines must also consider their comparative safety, which was not studied here,” Dickerman added. “This is something that we are actively investigating.”
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