You can do a few things to protect yourself against COVID, like proper handwashing and wearing masks. However, the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax vaccines are the most effective choices for reducing your risk of getting sick from COVID.
The three vaccines are all safe and approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, it can be confusing to have different vaccines in use to protect against the same virus—especially when vaccines evolve and authorizations change. Here's what you need to know about how the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines compare and how both measure up to Novavax.
Pfizer
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is a messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccine. This kind of vaccine contains lab-created mRNA that gives your body instructions for how to make spike proteins. Spike proteins are on the surface of viruses like the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID.
Who Can Get It?
Individuals aged 6 months and older can get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. However, children 6 months to 11 years old get a different formulation than people aged 12 years and older. Also, this vaccine can be appropriate as long as you have not had severe allergic reactions to any of the vaccine ingredients.
Doses and Timing
In general, the vaccine doses—and when to get them—will vary depending on variables such as your vaccination status and age. However, people 12 years of age and older who have not been vaccinated yet or have previously received any COVID vaccine should receive one dose of an updated Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
Also, if you have already had COVID, you can still get the vaccine. If you have an active COVID infection, wait until after your isolation period is complete to get vaccinated.
Possible Side Effects
As with any vaccine, some minor side effects are to be expected. The following are listed as some of the possible side effects:
- Chills
- Fever
- Headache
- Injection site pain, swelling, or redness
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Nausea
- Swollen lymph nodes
- Tiredness
There is also a potential for the vaccine to cause a severe allergic reaction that usually shows up within a few minutes up to an hour of getting a dose. Those with a history of severe allergic reactions should have a risk assessment conducted for the vaccine, and it's recommended that vaccines are administered in a setting where medical treatment is available.
Effectiveness
Research is still ongoing regarding how effective the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is. However, researchers previously found that this vaccine has been up to 95% effective against COVID.
Moderna
Another type of COVID-19 vaccine is the Moderna vaccine. This vaccine is the other mRNA vaccine option.
Who Can Get It?
The Moderna vaccine is available to people as young as 6 months old who have not had any serious allergic reactions to any of the vaccine's ingredients. Like the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, there are two different vaccine formulas for children between 6 months and 11 years old and for individuals at least 12 years old.
Doses and Timing
One dose of the updated Moderna vaccine is recommended for people 12 years old and older who have not been vaccinated. Individuals who already received a previous COVID vaccine should receive the same dosage.
Possible Side Effects
The following symptoms are listed as potential Moderna vaccine side effects:
- Chills or fever
- Headache
- Injection site pain, swelling, or redness
- Joint pain
- Muscle pain
- Nausea and vomiting
- Tiredness
Effectiveness
While the two mRNA vaccines have a slight difference in efficacy, it's not by much. One February 2021 study found the Moderna vaccine to be about 94.1% effective against COVID-19 in people ages 18 and older in a trial of 30,000 people.
Novavax
The Novavax vaccine is the only protein subunit vaccine. This type of vaccine contains pieces of spike protein and an adjuvant, a substance that helps your immune system's response to the protein.
Who Can Get It?
Unlike the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, the Novavax vaccine is available only for people aged 12 and older. Anyone younger should receive one of the other two vaccines.
Doses and Timing
Individuals who are unvaccinated should receive one dose of the Novavax vaccine and then a second dose eight weeks later. You only need one dose if you've had previous COVID vaccines.
Possible Side Effects
The Novavax vaccine shares many side effects with the mRNA vaccines. Those side effects may include:
- Chills
- Decreased appetite
- Diarrhea
- Facial swelling
- Feeling unwell in general
- Hives
- Injection site pain, redness, itching, and swelling
- Lymph node pain and swelling
- Muscle or joint pain
Effectiveness
Both mRNA vaccines have a somewhat higher efficacy rate than the Novavax vaccine based on the Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) for the vaccine. The GRADE review revealed that Novavax had an 89.6% rate of effectiveness against cases of COVID with symptoms.
Cost
COVID vaccines are free for everyone to receive, as long as they are eligible for them. Your immigrant status and whether you're insured or not will not affect your ability to get a COVID vaccine.
COVID-19 Boosters
Booster shots can help improve the effectiveness of vaccines that have already been administered. These shots are follow-up doses to your initial vaccine shots and help you stay up-to-date on your COVID vaccines. For people aged 5 and older, one dose of any of the COVID vaccines will keep you up to date and protected against COVID.
Vaccines Continue to Evolve
As variants of SARS-CoV-2 change, so will COVID vaccines. Additionally, the protection that COVID vaccines provide will be lower as time progresses following the shots. That's why it's important to stay up to date on COVID vaccines. Scientists have to create updated vaccines to help lower your risk of severe sickness from infections caused by newer variants.
A Quick Review
The Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Novavax vaccines are all free, safe, FDA-approved vaccines for COVID. They are also highly effective and share many of the same side effects, and booster shots for these vaccines are also part of the vaccination process. Just remember that vaccines will evolve as variants do, so stay up to date for protection against the active variants of SARS-CoV-2.
The information in this story is accurate as of publication. However, as the situation surrounding COVID-19 continues to evolve, it's possible that some data have changed since publication. While Health is trying to keep our stories as up-to-date as possible, we also encourage readers to stay informed on news and recommendations for their own communities by using the CDC, WHO, and their local public health department as resources.