There are two different vaccines that have been approved for young kids, the Pfizer vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. With these vaccines, there’s been a balancing act of trying to give a dose that produced an immune response but didn’t trigger too many side effects. Pfizer went for a very low dose to try to avoid those side effects. And the study showed that after two doses, the immune response was not strong enough, so they had to extend the trials and add a third dose. Moderna, on the other hand, went for a slightly higher dose, which does cause maybe a little bit higher rate of fevers but remains very safe. And two doses of Moderna does yield a good immune response.
I don’t think you can really say one is better than the other. The way I would choose between the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines is really based on how many visits I feel comfortable making to the pediatrician’s office or other vaccination site. And how worried am I about some of those mild side effects, like fever. If I want to minimize the number of shots or visits to the vaccination site, I would go for the Moderna vaccine. If I’m trying to minimize the risk of fever, I would go with the Pfizer vaccine.
