Study: Moderna Produces Double Antibody Protection Compared to Pfizer

The Moderna coronavirus vaccine may produce double the number of antibodies that the Pfizer vaccine does, Fox News reported.

The research into the vaccines comparative effectiveness came from a study of 2,499 vaccinated healthcare workers in Belgium. The researchers took blood samples to study the antibody levels in the subjects blood prior to getting the first of two shots, and then took blood again 10 weeks after the second dose.

Overall, the Moderna vaccine prompted an antibody level of 2,881 U/mL for Moderna and 1,108 U/mL for Pfizer. The researchers speculated the difference could be due to the mRNA count in the Moderna vaccine, which is triple the mRNA found in the Pfizer vaccine, and the 4 week gap between doses for Moderna, compared to the 3 week gap for Pfizer.

“A relationship between neutralization level after SARS-CoV-2 vaccination and protection against COVID-19 has been demonstrated by several studies,” the study read. “As such, the height of the humoral response after vaccination, which correlates with neutralizing antibody titers, might be clinically relevant.”

Separately, the Mayo Clinic observed that the Moderna vaccine was 76% more effective in preventing infection from the Delta variant, compared to 42% for the Pfizer vaccine. The Moderna vaccine prevented hospitalizations by 91.6%, and the Pfizer vaccine was by 85%.

In Florida, researchers found that Moderna recipients faced a 60% lower risk of breakthrough infection, compared to Pfizer recipients.

“Our observational study suggests that while both mRNA COVID-19 vaccines strongly protect against infection and severe disease, there are differences in their real-world effectiveness relative to each other and relative to prior months of the pandemic,” the Mayo Clinic study concluded.

All of the studies are hampered by their limited sample sizes, which are not necessarily representative of entire populations.

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smarcus@hamodia.com