Yeah I think the clearest evidence so far is that if you have J&J or AZ, getting an mRNA booster is really good. Less clear but promising to mix the mRNAs for boosting. But I haven’t dug in.
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My theory on mixing is that since Pfizer and Moderna have the same mRNA sequence, most of the differences we are seeing between the two are based on dose. Pfizer’s initial doses and booster dose all contain 30 micrograms of the mRNA. Moderna’s initial doses contain 100 micograms, and the booster dose contains 50. My understanding is that Pfizer went with the lowest effective dose to minimize side effects, while Moderna just went with a high dose to make sure it was going to work.
In that mixing study that went around, they used 100 microgram booster doses of Moderna, so no wonder it showed a strongly protective effect to get Pfizer then Moderna (vs. a 30 microgram booster of Pfizer for Moderna folks). But since they ended up deciding 100 microgram booster was overkill unless you are immunocompromised, I’d imagine it doesn’t really matter whether you get the 30 microgram Pfizer booster or the 50 microgram Moderna booster. I’d just get whatever’s available.
Of course, there are other small differences in the vaccines like the storage/delivery systems, and I believe the untranslated regions at the beginning and end of the mRNA strands differ somewhat: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8310186/ But my hunch is that we’ll eventually confirm the dose is what matters the most.
EDIT: As an aside, this has made me more curious about other vaccine series we get. Presumably most childhood vaccines are generic by now, and I imagine we’re all mixing brands all the time? How much does it matter?
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Thanks for posting this! I was wondering what the difference was since I thought the sequences were mostly the same!
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We have now taken 2 different kinds of post-travel at home covid tests. We did Quickvue after getting back from St. Louis in sept and today we did Binax Now. Each time that was the only brand of test that Walgreens had in stock.
I VASTLY prefer Quickvue as far as ease of use, it’s way simpler. Binax has a LOT of steps and is full of “OMG DO NOT TOUCH THIS, DO THIS STEP EXACTLY”. I guess the vials for Quickvue are a little messier but also easier than the card for Binax, where you sort of have to feed the swab in one hole and out the other on a card, and then fold over and seal the card.
At any rate, we’re negative post-air travel, HOORAY.
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Have only used Binax as that’s all the CVS in the nearest town carries, but now I’m sort of annoyed to see that Quickvue is both easier and a few dollars less.
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Yeah, for Quickvue you swab your nose, then you stick the swab in a vial filled with… something, for a while, then you take it out and put the test strip in. It seemed less error prone - so who knows, maybe we did the test wrong and do have covid. No symptoms though so I am not going to dwell on this possibility. The control line showed up as it should so I am going to trust that it worked.
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If the control line showed, I’m sure it did.
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That’s my thinking! Like a pregnancy test. And I pulled out my phone flashlight because the instructions were all like “OK so the Positive line might be REALLY REALLY faint so be sure to look REALLY closely” and didn’t see a thing.
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I’m glad that your test came back negative! I’ve taken the Binax and I agree it’s a bit awkward.
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My work wants to do an outdoor lunch for my department (40 people) and lunch will be individually packaged. I have no idea if this is okay. The largest group of people I’ve been around is 10 and I knew they were all vaccinated. I got both initial shots, have not boostered. Even if I do bring it home, Kiddo will be one week after his second shot, Mr. Meer also got his two shots but has no plans to booster. I have no idea what’s reasonable caution and what’s low-grade agoraphobia at this point. Also this is not an event I would have ever looked forward to, I mean it’s a work lunch for pete’s sakes. But before I was in an office already so why not pop down the hallway for free food? Currently I WFH but in the same city as my office building.
WWYD?
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I’m not a scientist, but I would feel ok with that level of risk, personally.
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If I wanted to go, I’d go.
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I would do an outdoor lunch like that for career progression and the associated dollars and keep interactions at the minimum required for work niceties. The shadowy one would have avoided in the best of times - picking up a sandwich at the beginning and/or end, and then going back to their desk.
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Outdoor would feel OK to me. Not indoor.
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I would go because it’s outdoors. I’d take the lunch and chat masked in a distanced group before eating alone or with people who are vaxxed
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I think going and having that interaction with your new coworkers is going to be important for you. Outdoor transmission has been shown to be rare, even more so with masks on. I would do the social thing and then retreat to a group of also vaxxed folks for the eating part. You can point out that you have a young kiddo at home and folks will get it.
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I have an appointment for a booster on Thursday I got J&J originally and I’m getting Pfizer for my booster. I’m a little nervous being pregnant but I guess that makes me high risk for COVID so better to get the booster than COVID. Anyway, hoping to not get much in the way of side-effects.
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I got boosted yesterday! Pfizer this time (previously got Moderna). I’m super tire today but that could also be because I was having stress dreams about starting my new job today, or the fact that the baby started crying at 5am, or that it was hard to sleep with a sore arm. Other than that, I feel pretty good!
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On Thursday we got an email at work that was all like “oh BTW, you need to submit your vaccination status and scan your card to the system by next Thursday oops we missed you when we sent the original email out a month ago!” Which fine, I was wondering why we hadn’t heard anything about it since the company is very big (20k+ employees worldwide, but majority US) and we are (as a company) a big federal contractor. So oops on their part, lol (a chunk of the distribution list was missed, including my entire division?)
Anyway it’s fine, but I am annoyed this morning because it means I had to set up my printer/scanner which I do not leave set up all the time. I scanned the card all catawampus and I DID NOT FIX IT (they can deal with the scan not being straight).
Also annoyed this morning because there is an option for dose 3 in the system (ie booster) and although I got my 2nd shot more than 6 months ago I am still not eligible in my state. 
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Got my booster Friday.
I got the moderna booster since I had pfizer initially.
Husband spent about 45 minutes talking about why he thinks that works, but as most things when he gets into ‘shop’ talk, I have no idea what he was saying…just basically that he thinks that they both hit the critical region the same, and then have slightly different non-critical region targets so it makes sense it is good to get both as then you’ve covered more of the whole spectrum.
Had a swore arm and a raging headache, but hopefully continue to stay healthy. It just seems like the breakthrough cases are so common now.
Work also asked for vaccination proof with the new OSHA rulings. Glad they are. The line for the shots at work Friday was pretty long, but I’m glad they are finally asking.
Daycare had an outbreak, quite a few staff, and at least 4 infants sick. They had been doing so well with no child cases (except the school age after school program. There have been a ton in there, once they went back to school- our schools do not mask, but daycare does). When the first staff tested they asked the state for the requirements, and basically there were none. After this many cases the owner has mailed out that is not what it’s going to be in the future, and any kid with covid in an unmasked room (under age 3) closes the room for 2 weeks. So now I’m terrified of losing childcare, only one of my kids is in a masked room.
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