Just read Johnson and Johnson’s vaccine is 66% effective against moderate COVID and 85% effective against severe disease (to compare Moderna is 95% effective against moderate and severe COVID) - my first thought was, who will get the less effective vaccine and how will we decide?

Despite its lower efficacy in clinical trial, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine has the benefit of only requiring ONE dose, which means, theoretically, it could be easier to administer to lots of people (since folks will not require a follow up visit for a 2nd dose).

The Moderna/Pfizer efficacy data place them among the most effective vaccines on the market (!) @NEJM has created a helpful FAQ list which covers this point: https://www.nejm.org/covid-vaccine/faq

To meet the enormous demand for COVID vaccines, multiple types are in development. It seems reasonable to assume that like Johnson & Johnson each may have varying levels of efficacy. Does that matter (in terms of efforts to reach herd immunity) and how do we decide who gets what?

I just want to pose these questions openly so we can talk about racial equity from the outset (before other vaccines receive authorization for emergency use). I welcome folks thoughts here.

Folks are making excellent points that I want to acknowledge:
1. J&J showed 100% efficacy against hospitalization and death (huge point)
2. It is hard to compare/perhaps we shouldn’t compare the trials because Moderna data is before the introduction of new global variants

For folks interested to read the J&J press release on their phase 3 trial for themselves, here it is: https://www.jnj.com/johnson-johnson-announces-single-shot-janssen-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-met-primary-endpoints-in-interim-analysis-of-its-phase-3-ensemble-trial