Pfizer has chosen a lower dose of vaccine than Moderna to reduce side effects

Pfizer has chosen a lower dose of the corona vaccine than Moderna to reduce side effects, says its chief scientist

Pfizer's chief scientist said the company chose a relatively low vaccine dose to minimize side effects.

Pfizer's vaccine contains 30 micrograms of mRNA, the active ingredient. Moderna 100 mcg.

Both vaccines cause similar side effects, according to the CDC.

Pfizer's chief scientist defended the company's COVID-19 vaccine dose, which is lower than Moderna's.

Pfizer's vaccine contains 30 micrograms of mRNA, the active ingredient in the vaccine, and Moderna's vaccine contains 100 micrograms.

On Wednesday, Philip Dormitzer, Pfizer's chief scientific officer, told the Financial Times that Pfizer and co-developer BioNTech "used the minimum dose" they could get to elicit a more robust immune response than simply catching COVID-19.

Dormitzer added that a higher dose might be a risk of more side effects, according to the Financial Times.

"If you look at what's happening with all the COVID-19 vaccines out there, the derailment was often counter-events that turned out," he said.

 Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines produce similar side effects. Possible side effects include a red, sore, sore arm; muscle pain; exhaustion; and fever.

A type of heart inflammation called myocarditis is an "infrequent" side effect of both vaccines and quickly goes away.

There are case reports of a so-called "Moderna arm," an angry red rash that goes away on its own after getting a Moderna shot, which has not been seen with Pfizer. Insider contacted Moderna for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

According to the CDC, in the United States, more than 214 million doses of Pfizer and 147 million doses of Moderna have been distributed.

Moderna's dose boosted antibodies to a higher degree than Pfizer's

A study of 1,600 Belgian health workers published as a research letter in JAMA on August 30 found that the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine produced twice as many antibodies as Pfizer within six to ten weeks after vaccination.

The study authors said that the higher levels of mRNA in the Moderna vaccine compared with the Pfizer vaccine and the longer interval between doses of Pfizer "may explain this difference."

Another study from the University of Virginia, published as a research letter in JAMA on September 2, found no difference in antibody response between age groups with Moderna's vaccine, but that this product produced a lower antibody response in people 50 and older. The researchers said the differences between the vaccines could be "related" to the amount of mRNA in them.

Vaccine protection also depends on whether or not the antibody response changes over time. For example, a recent study from Oxford University found that within four months, the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines had similar levels of antibodies because the level of antibodies from Pfizer does diminish over time while the levels of AstraZeneca remained the same.

Previous real-world data from Canada found that Pfizer's vaccine was 56% effective against COVID-19 with symptoms caused by the delta variant after a single dose.