Moderna Makes Twice as Many Antibodies as Pfizer, Study Says

No it doesn't. It says it's to early to conclude anything.

Outside researchers said it was premature to conclude that the difference in antibody levels was medically important.

“I would urge caution in making the conclusion that because Moderna demonstrated a slightly higher peak on average that its efficacy will be slower to wane,” said David Benkeser, a biostatistician at Emory University, in an email. “Such a conclusion requires a host of assumptions that have not yet been evaluated.”

Both vaccines produce high levels of antibodies, he noted, and other studies have shown even relatively low levels of antibodies are protective.

Still, it’s possible that higher initial antibody levels might correlate with longer duration of protection against mild breakthrough infections, said Deborah Steensels, a microbiologist at Ziekenhuis Oost-Limburg, a large hospital in Belgium, who was lead author on the study. Also, if higher antibody levels are confirmed to be important, then the Moderna vaccine might be better for immunocompromised people who don’t respond well to vaccines, she said.

Moderna hit me like a load of bricks with flu-like symptoms. I drove my son and a friend to town to get Pfizer and neither one complained about it.