Covid Vax Durability Updates

[EPguy]

There is an article from NBC news that discusses this for the JJ Vax.

nbcnews.com/health/health-n...

I was motivated to look a bit further. Vaxes have been out long enough to get this data now. There is a pattern that J&J vax starts with lower antibodies but holds protection better than the mRNA Vaxes (Pfizer-Moderna) Many of us ran to get the mRNAs over JJ since at least short term they show better. There are also the rare but different adverse events to consider for each. For example there is a risk, especially for women from ~30-49 with the J&J type vax, for thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) and CDC currently <<gives a preferential recommendation to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines>>:

yalemedicine.org/news/coron...

<<Based on these numbers, the risk appears to be greatest—1 in 100,000—in women ages 30 to 49.>>

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I'm not suggesting the J&J vax over the others, but only that it seems to have an upside that was not known until recently and could be worth discussing with your Dr.

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The most extreme result is T-cell data, this is what takes over once the virus gets in (for example because of low antibodies) T-cells help keep us out of the hospital. J&J holds nearly 10X better T-cell response than Pfizer/Moderna (0.12 vs ~0.017%) in this study. Note this is with only 1 dose of J&J vs two of mRNAs. This result is good, but as usual alone it may not predict levels of protection.

medrxiv.org/content/10.1101...

<<At 8 months, the median CD8+ T-cell responses were 0.016% with the BNT162b2 vaccine (Pfizer) , 0.017% with the mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccine, and 0.12% with the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine (J&J)>>

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This result is for just the single JJ shot, it could be a boosted JJ is extra good, but no study has been done for that that I know, as in one of these refs <<Additional studies are needed to understand durability following homologous or heterologous boosters (same or different vaxes) .>>

AZ uses a similar tech to JJ (adenovirus) but I'm not aware of long term studies on it.

None of these cover Omicron, but it would not be surprising to see a similar pattern of relative durability when such a study comes out.

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medrxiv.org/content/10.1101...

<<Ad26.COV2.S (J&J) showed a more durable level of protection against breakthrough infections and hospitalizations in line with published evidence of its durable antibody and cellular (T-cells) immune response, although its Vaccine Effectiveness (VE) at baseline after a single-dose is lower than that for the two-dose mRNA vaccines>>

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jamanetwork.com/journals/ja...

<<, In this study, the Ad26.COV2.S COVID-19 vaccine was associated with high and durable effectiveness in clinical practice, including against the Delta variant.>>

<<,VE for COVID-19 was higher in individuals younger than 65 years (78%...) and lower in immunocompromised patients 64%...>>