The Johnson & Johnson shot's less stringent storage requirements could be an advantage in rural areas, Gulick said. "They can be put in a refrigerator and stored there, whereas Moderna, and definitely Pfizer, need much colder temperatures to keep their vaccine viable," Gulick told Live Science. "The fact you can easily store [the Johnson & Johnson vaccine] in a doctor's office, pharmacy, etc., could make it more accessible."
This single-shot vaccine also could be better for people who might have difficulty traveling to hospitals or mass vaccination sites (especially those who are home- or bed-bound).
"People get one shot, but there's no guarantee they can come back for the second shot," Gulick told Live Science.
With the rise of new coronavirus variants, some protection is better than no protection. Because a one-shot vaccine such as Johnson & Johnson's only requires one shot, the same number of doses can go twice as far as with the other vaccines, which might be better for controlling the spread of the virus. However, initial supply of the J&J vaccine will be limited; the company initially promised 12 million doses in March, but it may fall behind on production, according to The New York Times.
Dr. William Lang, former White House physician and the medical director of JobSiteCare, told Live Science that the lower efficacy shouldn't dissuade people from getting theJohnson & Johnson vaccine. Unlike Pfizer and Moderna, Johnson & Johnson tested their vaccine against the South African variant, which has been shown to evade neutralizing antibodies, which the immune system deploys to stop the coronavirus from infecting cells.
Related: COVID-19 vaccines: The new technology that made them possible
"The reported lower effectiveness may be somewhat real, but it may also be a function of testing in a slightly different environment because of the newly circulating variants," Lang said. "If my 88-year-old dad or I were offered J&J, I would not hesitate to get it."
Given the emergence of vaccine-evading variants, like the South African and Brazilian variants, reducing spread as quickly as possible is necessary to lower the chances for further mutations to evolve, Gulick said.
On the flip side, the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines, which send mRNA into muscle cells to tell the body to produce an immune reaction to the coronavirus spike protein, do seem to have higher efficacy, Lang said.
Gulick said high-risk groups — such as the elderly, who mount a less robust immune response, and people who are immunocompromised — should be prioritized for vaccines with higher efficacy.
"I would probably go with the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer vaccine, at least for my patients with HIV. But if the insurance only covers a certain one, I'd say give it to them because I'd just want the vaccine in their arm," Gulick said. "But I would choose the two-dose shot if I had the preference."
With the world surpassing 100 million COVID-19 cases, according to the World Health Organization dashboard, most of us won't get a chance to pick and choose: It's important just to get vaccinated.
Originally published on Live Science.
Editor's Note: This story was updated on Monday, Feb. 15 at 5:20 p.m. E.D.T. to clarify that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are available, not approved, in the U.S. They were given emergency use authorization, not full FDA approval.
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