Three COVID-19 vaccines have been authorized for emergency use by U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). These vaccines have also passed independent review by medical experts in the Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, as part of the Western States Pact.
The Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine was FDA approved on Aug. 23, 2021, and will now be marketed as Comirnaty (koe-mir’-na-tee), for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 16 years of age and older.
The Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine was FDA approved on Jan. 31, 2022, and will now be marketed as Spikevax for the prevention of COVID-19 disease in individuals 18 years of age and older.
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine
- FDA authorized for emergency use in those 5 to 15 years
- FDA approved for 16 years and older
- mRNA vaccine
- Two doses, 21 days apart
- Commonly referred as BNT162b2
- Clinical trial data show the vaccine is 95 percent effective at preventing symptomatic lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection starting seven days after the second dose.
More about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is available on the CDC website.
Pfizer-BioNTech more information
Moderna vaccine
- FDA approved for 18 years and older
- mRNA vaccine
- Two doses, 28 days apart
- Commonly referred as mRNA-1273
- Clinical trial data shows the vaccine is about 94 percent effective at preventing symptomatic lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection after two doses.
More about the Moderna vaccine is available on the CDC website.
Moderna more information
Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine
- FDA authorized for emergency use in those 18 years and older
- Viral vector vaccine
- Single-dose vaccine
- Commonly referred as JNJ-78436735 and Ad26.COV2.S
- Clinical trial data shows the vaccine is about 66.3% percent effective across all regions studied at preventing symptomatic lab-confirmed COVID-19 infection after a single dose. Trial data shows the vaccine is 93% effective in preventing hospitalization from COVID-19 and 100% effective in preventing death from COVID-19.
More about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is available on the CDC website.
Johnson & Johnson/Janssen more information
Summary of All Vaccines
- No trials compared efficacy between vaccines in the same study at the same time. All Phase 3 trials occurred during different times of the year, in different geographic areas and against different circulating variants.
- All vaccines demonstrated efficacy against symptomatic lab-confirmed COVID-19 and all demonstrated high efficacy against severe COVID-19 illness causing hospitalization.
- In the trials, no participants who received COVID-19 vaccine died from COVID-19.