"Get whatever vaccine you're offered first" is good public health advice, but I still wanted to get "the best" one.

So I did not consider getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at first because of the "low" efficacy rates, but after doing some reading I changed my mind. (Thread)

First I thought that a 66% efficacy rate meant that 1/3 of people in the non-placebo group in the trial ended up getting COVID. But that's not how it works.

This rate is lower than that of the other vaccines but is still excellent.

https://fortune.com/2021/03/05/covid-vaccine-efficacy-numbers-johnson-johnson/

Second, you can't really compare the trials done for the J&J, Pfizer, and Moderna vaccines. The latter two were done earlier in the pandemic.

The J&J trial was done later on, in several countries, and they have data on its effectiveness against some COVID variants

So I'm not an expert in this stuff but to me it makes total sense that the J&J efficacy rate would be lower than the others when it was tested against different variants, while the other vaccines were not.

https://www.advisory.com/en/daily-briefing/2021/02/26/jj-vaccine

I know this isn't quite the same, but like, if someone said that toddler 1 is 94% likely to eat a vegetable, and toddler 2 is only 50% likely, but toddler 1 has only ever had potatoes, while toddler 2 has tried a wider variety of veggies...you get the idea

So, after I realized that the J&J vaccine's efficacy rate isn't bad at all, and that it was tested against COVID variants while the other vaccines were not, I was still wondering if 2 shots were better than 1 and if that had anything to do with how effective the vaccines are

And I learned that getting a 2 dose vaccine isn't necessarily better than getting a 1 dose vaccine. You only get one dose with the J&J vaccine because that's all you need for your body to develop a good immune response.

https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2021/03/420071/how-effective-johnson-johnson-covid-19-vaccine-heres-what-you-should-know

And besides that, getting 1 dose is more convenient. It gets people fully vaccinated faster - in 2 weeks instead of 6. That's good for public health, and it's good for individuals who want to go back to partying or licking doorknobs or whatever y'all did before the pandemic.

The one dose vaccine is also good for people who will have trouble making two separate appointments for a variety of reasons. There will be people who can't afford Uber, or can't get a ride, who will have to sit on a bus for several hours to get to a vaccination site.

So after hours of research & learning that I had nothing to worry about, I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this morning.

They're doing 3000 shots every day at the FEMA vaccination site in Orlando (Valencia West Campus on S. Kirkman). 7am - 7pm. Bring your ID #OneAndDone

Ok, back to my Twitter hiatus. Get vaccinated so you can lick doorknobs again.