Moderna knocked me for a loop. I got the shot in the morning and felt fine until about five in the afternoon. Then, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I was miserable for about 36 hours.
Anecdotally just from people I know personally, the Moderna shot seems to have worse reactions than the Pfizer.
That's what I gather from my nonscientific study of friends and coworkers too. People who got pfizer were down for a day, those who got Moderna were down for two. I only know two people who got the J and J so not enough data to tell.
Anecdotally just from people I know personally, the Moderna shot seems to have worse reactions than the Pfizer.
Not surprising given the Moderna dose is about 3 times more than the Pfizer vaccine dose.
Aside from a sore arm for two or three days I had no negative effects.
You know, now it all makes sense. I was upset with CVS corporation for this new policy, but now I realize that one of these stupid split-tails probably misread the memo.![]()

Not surprising given the Moderna dose is about 3 times more than the Pfizer vaccine dose.
Can you explain that more? I don't understand what 3 times more means.
Each dose of Pfizer’s contains 30 micrograms of vaccine. Moderna went with a much larger dose of vaccine, 100 micrograms. It means the company is using a little more than three times as much vaccine per person as Pfizer is. And yet, they aren’t getting better results. The government’s vaccine development program, formerly called Operation Warp Speed, has asked Moderna to test if it could lower the dosage of its vaccine without eroding the vaccine’s protection.
I expect it is as measured by volume or mass.
Comparing the Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson
So just over three times more actual vaccine by mass.
They're not the same vaccine though. They're both based on the same principle though. So isn't it a bit like comparing apples and oranges? Or maybe different varieties of apples.
Sure, but getting pelted with 3 times as many granny smith apples (by mass) is probably going to have a greater potential for adverse effects than a lesser amount of red delicious or even nectarines. Moderna and Pfizer are the apples in this case and J&J the nectarines using a different method to get cells to produce the protein 'spikes' that emulate the virus for the immune reaction
Though, produce humor aside, both Moderna and Pfizer use the same mRNA approach to produce the proteins, that J&J doesn't use, while all three do get cells in the body to produce an emulating (of the virus) surface proteins. Certainly those methods and the variation can be factors, not to mention the proteins each produce to emulate the virous. Still over three times has much has to have some impact unless the response (for Moderna) is just generally so weak that such amount is needed to get consistent results. Which of course would mean that for people where the Moderna response is good, they can potentially get wacked 3 times as hard with the initial immune response.
We've all had Moderna here and didn't notice anything other than basically just having stuff injected into our arms. Though two of us are on immunosuppressants, so our immune responses are deliberately suppressed.
Is this a good analogy though? Both doses are really not that large.
Can you explain that more? I don't understand what 3 times more means.
Pfizer/BioNTech Vaccine has been recommended to people 16 years of age and older, with a dose of 30 μg (0.3 m)...
Moderna Vaccine has been recommended to people 18 years of age and older, with a dose of 50 μg
Dosage Forms & Strengths
injection, frozen suspension concentrate
30 mcg/0.3mL (multiple-dose vial)
Dosage Forms & Strengths
injection, suspension
100mcg/0.5mL per dose2 multiple dose vial sizes: Maximum of 11 doses (range 10-11 doses) or maximum of 15 doses (range 13-15 doses)
I expect it is as measured by volume or mass.
Comparing the Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson
So just over three times more actual vaccine by mass.