Fewer Delta breakthroughs with Moderna vs Pfizer/BioNTech

Published January 22, 2022 06:44 AM By NANCY LAPID,Reuters

When the Delta variant of the coronavirus was prevalent in the United States, recipients of two doses of Moderna's mRNA vaccine were less likely to experience a breakthrough infection - and if they did, were slightly less likely to be hospitalized - than recipients of two doses of the mRNA vaccine from Pfizer and BioNTech, a large study found.

Researchers analyzed health records of more than 637,000 vaccine recipients who were not previously infected with the virus and had not gotten a booster shot.

As reported on Thursday in JAMA

, breakthrough infections steadily increased every month from July to November 2021, with higher rates in the Pfizer/BioNTech group.

In November, there were 2.8 cases among every thousand people vaccinated with the Pfizer/BioNTech shots, compared to 1.6 cases per thousand recipients of the Moderna vaccines.

The vaccines protected equally well against death, but the hospitalization rate was 12.7% for infected Moderna recipients and 13.3% for Pfizer/BioNTech recipients.

When the researchers compared 62,584 Moderna recipients to a closely-matched equal-sized group of Pfizer/BioNTech recipients, the risk for breakthrough infection was 15% lower in the Moderna group.

"Although there is a difference in breakthrough infections, both vaccines are highly protective against SARS-COV2 infection and especially against the most severe consequences of infection," said coauthor Pamela Davis of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in a statement. -- Reuters

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