Do all 3 COVID vaccines offer similar protection? Here’s what the data say

In a matter of days, health care workers in the U.S. will begin administering the nation’s third COVID-19 vaccine — one from Johnson & Johnson — in a major boost to vaccination efforts that will more quickly save lives.

Clinical trials showed the vaccine was overall 66% effective at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 in the lab as early as 14 days after getting jabbed. Specifically in the U.S., efficacy jumped to 72%.

While federal health officials have deemed the shot safe and effective, some vaccine prospects worry it’s not as protective as those from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which demonstrated 95% and 94.1% efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19, the disease the coronavirus causes.

However, experts say there’s no need to worry because the prevention of coronavirus-related hospitalization and death is most important, and all three authorized COVID-19 vaccines offer absolute protection against it.

“The vaccines were all 100% effective in the vaccine trials in stopping hospitalizations and death. Waiting for a more effective vaccine is actually the worst thing you can do to lower your risk of getting severely ill and dying of COVID-19,” a group of six infectious diseases and vaccine experts who are all members of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 Advisory Board, wrote in an opinion piece for USA Today.

“The vaccine efficacy rates vary only with respect to mild forms of COVID-19 illness. When it comes to the measures that really matter — hospitalizations and death — they are all functionally the same,” they continued.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s chief medical adviser, also said he’d take the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine because it’s “virtually 100% protective against hospitalizations and death.”

“There’s a lot of different ways to try and do comparisons,” Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky told CNBC Monday. “But when you really look at what’s the objective here, keeping people out of the hospital, keeping people from dying, we believe this is an incredibly important tool to be added — to health care systems let alone for patients around the world.”

Reports of deaths in the three COVID-19 vaccine trials

All three coronavirus shots prevented COVID-19-related deaths in those who received the vaccines during clinical trials.

As of Feb. 5, the Johnson & Johnson trial reported 25 deaths — 20 among those who received a placebo shot and five among vaccine recipients. Deaths in the vaccine group were not related to COVID-19 and were not caused by the vaccine itself, a U.S. Food and Drug Administration review found.

A total of six people died during the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial, two of whom got the shot. The deaths were not related to COVID-19 or the vaccine, officials say, and represent causes of death that occur in the general population at a similar rate, the FDA added.

One of the individuals died of cardiac arrest and the other of arteriosclerosis, which is the thickening and hardening of arterial walls. Both of them were over 55 years old.

During the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine trial, six of the 13 people who died received the shot, all due to reasons not related to COVID-19.

Reports of severe disease, hospitalizations in the three COVID-19 vaccine trials

No one who received the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna coronavirus vaccines became hospitalized.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine also prevented hospitalization in vaccine recipients, besides two who were over 60 years old with comorbidities (obesity and hypertension) at least 14 days after getting their single dose. No one who got the vaccine was hospitalized after a month, when the body has received maximum protection against COVID-19.

All three vaccines also offer protection against severe COVID-19, defined by needing mechanical ventilation or being admitted to an intensive care unit. However, some people can still get sick with symptoms. That’s because the shots don’t offer full protection against coronavirus infection, which is different from developing the disease it causes.

Emerging data show the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are playing some role in preventing both asymptomatic and symptomatic infections and transmission, although ongoing studies are attempting to understand this relationship more clearly.

That’s why health experts say it’s important to continue wearing masks, avoiding crowds, washing your hands, and staying at least six feet away from others.