Ask HN: Moderna vs. Astra vs. J&J vs. etc.

  • J&J hasn't released any numbers yet. Any such release would violate their study protocol. The smart money has been on late January or early February (and they have given statements suggesting this is true), but they need to wait for specific semi-random events to happen in their study before they can release results so they don't know when.

    Novavac did give results last night. 89% in general, but 50% against the south Africa variation that everyone is worried about. (I'm going from memory on the numbers so they are off a bit, but close enough)

    You probably will not be given a choice. Supply is limited so you take what you can get.

    For now you can get either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. They are so close to the same as to not make any difference. The only exception is if your allergist says something in relation to your allergies. (if you don't have an allergist you probably don't have to worry). If your allergist says something, then he can probably get you access to the right one for you - but you probably can't otherwise.

    As for manufacturing, basically nobody has the ability to make more vaccine even if allowed to. Pfizer spent most of last year building factories, anyone who want to make their vaccine will need to spend the rest of this year making a factory. Sure a lab could make a few doses by hand, but we are talking about a dozen people making 10 doses a week: not significant to Covid, and it takes away from all the work they were doing before.