Which COVID vaccine has the least side effects?

Are you wondering which COVID vaccine has the least side effects? It turns out the answer is ... there is no answer.

While a recent report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds more women report side effects compared to men from the vaccines, Dr. Martin Blaser, director of the Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine at Rutgers University and an infectious disease expert, said there is no evidence to suggest one vaccine has more or less of a chance of causing a reaction than the other two.

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Some people who have received the Moderna vaccine claim they have had more severe side effects, while others who got the Pfizer or the J&J vaccines report the same thing. But Dr. Blaser stressed “these are all anecdotes ... but right now there is no evidence that one vaccine is causing more reactions than the other."

He said looking at all of the research objectively, “the best vaccine is the vaccine that’s available today. At this point there’s no clear difference between any of the three vaccines.”

Dr. Blaser pointed out the CDC has been keeping a detailed vaccination record and there have been no reported deaths or severe illnesses.

He said it's true that younger people tend to have more severe reactions than older ones, which is not surprising.

“In general, young people run faster than old people,” he said. “Their body is more robust and their immune and inflammatory responses are more robust as well.”

So why do people who are older have completely different reactions to the COVID vaccine? Dr. Blaser said we still don’t have a clear understanding of this.

He also pointed out a recently completed report from health officials in Israel found “people who are unvaccinated were 29 times more likely to die than people who were vaccinated," which he described as "huge."