HARRISBURG, Pa. — Something doctors have heard patients say, they prefer the Pfizer, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine over the other. But, it's likely when your time comes to get the vaccine, you won't have a choice which one you can get. That shouldn't make you hold off on getting the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. John Goldman, an infectious disease doctor at UPMC Pinnacle says, people need to get whatever vaccine is available to them when they are eligible. He says, the vaccines finally offer a light at the end of the tunnel, and being picky or trying to wait until you can get a specific vaccine will only delay getting back to normal.
When it comes to the COVID-19 vaccines, Dr. Goldman says, they are all great options that will be effective in helping end this pandemic. He says, any vaccine with an efficacy over 50 percent is beneficial to get. So, folks shouldn't get hung up on Johnson & Johnson possibly being a little bit less effective than Pfizer and Mdoerna.
"These vaccines will get us back to normal, these vaccines will allow us to get out of masks, allow us to get to our favorite restaurants, and these vaccines are remarkably effective at preventing disease," said Dr. Goldman. "We basically recommend to get whatever vaccine you can get into your arm first."
Dr. Goldman also encourages people to stop listening to what they're friends say on Facebook. He says, there's a lot of inaccurate information about vaccine floating around online, like it causing infertility, which Dr. Goldman says, is false. He says, the vaccines are remarkably safe and you have a much much higher risk of complications from COVID-19 than you do from the vaccine.