FACT FINDERS: Which COVID Booster is Best?

TUCSON, Ariz. (KOLD News 13) - Since you can mix and match COVID boosters which one should you get?

Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID vaccines are both MRNA technology and are very similar when it comes to how they work. However, so far studies are showing Moderna’s primary series is doing slightly better than Pfizer’s primary series.

Could that mean Moderna’s booster might be slightly better as well? Not necessarily. Dr. Deepta Bhattachary with the University of Arizona explains why.

“The Moderna booster dose is half what the first two shots were and so there’s been some speculation that maybe one of the reasons that Moderna was doing better in the first place is because it’s using three times as much of a dose as Pfizer. But now that they’ve cut that dose, again in half, it could be that those differences won’t be very big. So, for my opinion, I think Pfizer and Moderna at this point, based on the information we have, it’s six of one, half dozen of the other,” he said.

As for Johnson and Johnson, Dr. Bhattacharya says if your primary shot was J and J early studies are showing a second dose of J and J is not doing as well as the MRNA boosters.

He does note, these studies are ongoing and says so far we are not working off of great information. So, this is definitely something to watch as new information becomes available.

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