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The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, ensures that there is no difference in effectiveness between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. However, the two vaccines have so far had different formulas, particularly in terms of the dosage of messenger RNA.
According to Olivier Véran, Minister of Health, there is no difference in effectiveness between the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Despite this, some Internet users remain worried. For the first two doses, the two vaccines use the same technology: messenger RNA. But since November 8, the Moderna vaccine has not been recommended for young people by the High Authority for Health due to very rare cases of myocarditis.
The two vaccines have different formulas. Moderna is more concentrated than Pfizer in messenger RNA: 100 micrograms per dose for one, 30 micrograms per dose for the other. “The other side of the coin is that you will have a few more side effects with this vaccine which is overdosed compared to the Pfizer vaccine”, underlines Mathieu Molimard, head of the medical pharmacology department at the Bordeaux University Hospital (Gironde).
For the third injection, Moderna planned to rebalance its dosage and switch to 50 micrograms of messenger RNA by only vaccinating with a half dose. A study published in the United Kingdom indicates that with this less dosed booster, the effectiveness of Moderna remains very close to that of Pfizer. However, as a precaution, the authorities still advise those under 30 to favor the Pfizer vaccine over that of Moderna.