FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) – Which COVID-19 vaccine should you get? Allen County Health Commissioner Dr. Matthew Sutter definitely has a strong answer, but it may not be what you think.
“So, the answer to which vaccine people should get is the first one they become eligible for and get access to,” he said.
Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson and Johnson are the three available COVID vaccines in the United states.
“These are all highly effective and they’re tremendously effective against the things we really care about, which is if you get COVID-19 are you going to get sick enough to go into the hospital or die? And they’re all 100 percent effective against that,” said Sutter. “The most important thing out of all of this is does it cause hospitilization and death. We have a number of circulating coronaviruses right now. We don’t care that much because they typically cause a bad cold and relatively mild illness. If we can knock COVID-19 down to that through mass vaccination, then we don’t have to worry about it the same way.”
The CDC reports that getting both doses of either Moderna or Pfizer is about 95 percent effective against COVID-19, while getting the single dose of Johnson and Johnson is about 66 percent effective.
Sutter says don’t wait for Johnson and Johnson because it’s just one shot and don’t wait for the other two vaccines because they have higher effectiveness.
“I think the risk of actually acquiring the COVID-19 infection while waiting for an optimal vaccine is probably higher than any benefit of looking at one vaccine,” he said. “If you go to get the flu vaccine, do you ask which one it is? Because there’s generally about five different ones every year. I’ve never noticed and I’ve never paid attention. I think it’s a very similar sort of thing. I think getting any of the three approved COVID-19 vaccines all provide excellent protection. All would be good choices.”
Sutter shares this advice in advance of all Indiana residents ages 16 and older being able to get the vaccine on March 31.
