A one-quarter dose of the Moderna mRNA vaccine has almost the same efficacy as a full dose.  This has huge implications for getting more people vaccinated, sooner. 

 

The same review also finds that, "for countries choosing between approved but lower efficacy vaccines available immediately and waiting for mRNA vaccines, using immediately available vaccines typically reduces mortality."

 

It's probably safe to expect we'll hear a lot more about dose stretching in the future.

 

Here's a graph that lays out the efficacy rates for partial doses of all the major vaccines:

 

 

Here's a video presentation by the authors:

 

 

And here's a link to the page announcing this data: https://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2021/06/a-half-dose-of-moderna-is-more-effective-than-a-full-dose-of-astrazeneca.html

 

Finally, here's the full pdf for those who want to read the working paper.

 

a similar story with AZ from the last year. For the first shot half of recommended dose appeared more effective.

And now they are stretching gap from 2 weeks to 4 months.

Might be something in it. Lower dose and longer gap might give less undesired side effects 

2 hours ago, internationalism said:

a similar story with AZ from the last year. For the first shot half of recommended dose appeared more effective.

And now they are stretching gap from 2 weeks to 4 months.

Might be something in it. Lower dose and longer gap might give less undesired side effects 

After reading the published phase III studies of Moderna and Pfizer,  some people asked "Why didn't they test lower doses?" Because the results looked like lower doses would be good enough. 

Of course, that would have cost time. 

 

The numbers of participants here are very low.

And neutralizing antibodies might not be that relevant. 

New phase III studies would be necessary. 

 

 

Dang that Moderna mRNA juice is good stuff!