The first time I received a Novavax Covid vaccine, it felt almost devastating.
Over the past few years, every mRNA-based booster I’ve received — made by Moderna and Pfizer — has felt like a two-day bout of the flu. I would cheerfully book sick days on my calendar and suck it up through the fevers, headaches and fatigue, comforting myself with ibuprofen and the knowledge that at least I was keeping my elderly parents safe.
Two and a half years after the pandemic, the Food and Drug Administration approved a Covid vaccine made by biotech company Novavax using old vaccine manufacturing technology. Licensed for people age 12 and older, it was nearly as effective at preventing Covid as Pfizer and Moderna’s mRNA vaccine — and, as I noted with great interest, had fewer side effects. In 2023, I got one.
The difference was amazing: although I felt a bit weak and shaky for a few hours the night of my injection, I woke up the next morning feeling delightfully normal, with only a mild ache in my arm and a smug pep in my step. This year, there was no question what I would do — it would be easy, breezy Novax for me.
More than half All people who get mRNA boosters have unpleasant short-term side effects like mine. But surprisingly, few of them seem to see Novavax as an alternative: As of August, Americans had 650 million mRNA vaccine dose, compared only 83,000 Novavax doses. Experts tell me that Novavax is suffering both from its time and from an unearned reputation as a dark horse. “There’s this idea that it’s kind of a second-line vaccine that people take if they don’t want to get the mRNA vaccine,” says Amesh Adalja“But it shouldn’t be,” says an infectious disease doctor and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“They’re equivalent, and there might be some advantage to having it,” he told me.
Although the worst of the pandemic is over, there are still good reasons to get a Covid-19 booster. More viruses have been created than this 76,000 deaths In and around 2023 41,000 hospitalizations Between October 2023 and last April. There is still risk to develop Long covid After infection, even if it is less than in the first days of the epidemic.
Still, more than half of Americans don’t plan to get a Covid booster this year, according to a recent report Pew Research Center surveyAnd the discomfort they cause is a big factor. 60 percent of people who didn’t get in line for the shot said side effects were a major reason for their reluctance.
Maybe more people would get the covid booster if they knew what I know about Novavax: making smart choices for the health of you and your community doesn’t have to feel bad.
Why no one thinks of Novavax first
Novavax was developed differently from other covid vaccines, which is why it didn’t enter our vaccine vocabulary until after the pandemic.
Moderna and Pfizer vaccine – first Covid immunization approved by FDA December 2020 — Developed using technology previously only used in clinical trial settings. The technology involves encoding The genetic blueprint The spike protein of the novel coronavirus mounts an immune response on the fragile mRNA molecule and delivers it to the body’s muscle cells.
Like the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer, Novavax was developed to fight against Covid-19. Unlike them, it is based on older technology mirror method Many others are used to make conventional vaccines that have been around for decades.
It takes a long time to develop a vaccine using conventional technology. This explains why the first version of Novavax was not approved August 2022About two years after the mRNA vaccine came to market. It is only approved for older children (12 years and above) and adults.
“Typically, there’s a lot of advantage in being first to market,” says Adalza. The subsequent release of Novavax means that many people don’t think of the Covid vaccine when they think of it.
Novavax has fewer serious side effects than the mRNA vaccine
Before mRNA vaccines were even approved by the FDA, it was clear that their short-term effects were more severe than those of other vaccines that had come before. In preliminary reports, vaccine trial participants reported severe fatigue, headache, and muscle and joint pain That didn’t happen with other vaccines.
Over time, more information emerged. The vaccine was divided into two doses a few weeks apart. In vaccine trials, there were many adults short term side effects Sore arms outside, especially after the second dose. Their symptoms include fatigue (60 percent to 65 percent), headache (50 percent to 60 percent), and fever (11 percent to 15 percent) lasting one to two days. For both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, post-vaccination symptoms were more common in children and adolescents and less common in those 65 years and older.
(Notably, a quarter to half of people who received the saline placebo instead of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine also reported these symptoms without fever — so it’s not entirely clear how much of the vaccine group’s discomfort was due to the vaccine.)
Once the general public began receiving the vaccine, the full extent of these side effects became apparent. Fatigue, headache, or muscle pain may occur after the second injection About half Among those who took part in a voluntary vaccine safety tracking system, a quarter had chills, fever or joint pain. In one study, 37 percent of health workers who received the vaccine became significantly sicker in the next few days miss work.
When NovaVax came on the scene less than two years after mRNA vaccines were rolled out, a large study suggested that it would Mild side effects. In particular, fever was less common among those who received the vaccine, occurring in only 6 percent of people after the second dose. Other side effects were also less frequent, and all went away faster than symptoms following mRNA vaccines—hours rather than days later.
“There are a lot of people who are legitimately knocked out for a few days with mRNA, and you’re not going to get that with Novavax.”
There are no large head-to-head comparison studies to measure how big the difference in side effects is between the mRNA vaccine and NovaVax. However, a small Chinese study published earlier this year suggests just that How much more bearable Novavax compared to its mRNA counterpart. Among those who received current versions of the Novavax and Pfizer vaccines by the end of 2022, those who received the Pfizer mRNA vaccine were six times more likely to develop fever and more than three times more likely to develop chills and muscle aches. Only 2 percent of people in the Novavax group had each of these symptoms; The symptom they reported more often than the Pfizer group was fatigue.
Like KirstenAn infectious disease doctor and vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, led the way Safety studies About mixing and matching brands of primary Covid vaccine and booster doses. Although the study was not designed to compare the side effects of the different vaccines, it was clear that people who received the Novavax booster dose had milder side effects that resolved more quickly than those with the mRNA vaccine.
“There are a lot of people who are legitimately knocked out for a few days with mRNA, and you’re not going to get that with Novavax,” he says.
Novavax works alongside mRNA vaccines
Therefore Novavax causes less annoying side effects than other vaccines. How much does it protect you from covid?
When mRNA vaccines first became available in the late 2020s, the criteria experts approached for their quality was their effectiveness in preventing infection. In the beginning, Moderna’s and Pfizer had vaccines The effectiveness of the vaccine is 95 percentWhich means that out of 100 people at risk of contracting the virus, they protected all but 5 of them from becoming infected.
After the virus had evolved, and many people had already been exposed to Covid-19, Novavax was tested at a different time. Its primary efficacy was measured 90 percent.
Current evidence suggests that those first vaccinated with the mRNA vaccine to receive the Novavax booster are well covered – in studies like Lyke’s, they developed antibody levels. well above D Level required to protect people from covid. Although mRNA boosters can lead to higher antibody levels, “higher is not necessarily better,” she says.
Other studies suggested that Novavax elicits antibodies that may last longer than those elicited by other vaccines; still others indicates that when it comes to more real-world outcomes such as developing symptoms after infection, NovaVax is as good as any other vaccine on the market.
These studies are from 2021 and 2022, and involve Covid variants that are different from those now circulating. A recent assessment of how well the new version of Novavax is at preventing Covid infection and serious illness – ie Information FDA has been reviewed Prior to approving the 2024-2025 version of Novavax Booster – the study was conducted in mice, not humans. However, they suggest that the latest versions of Novavax are at the ballpark Among its previous versions when it comes to protecting us from the worst of viruses. You can check Novavax website Find a pharmacy near you where you can get a Novavax vaccine.
Fundamentally, it’s time to stop worrying about whether a vaccine is somewhat more effective at preventing certain outcomes than others, Like said. “At this point, we’re beyond that,” she says. “We have so many options and you can pick and choose,” she says, “and you’re probably not going to make a wrong decision.”
