TIL the term “catch-22” comes from a novel.

Welcome! Good luck!

What I gathered is that Novavax developed a cult following for itself that is actually quite unwarranted. I am not going to provide many citations because I have other things to do tonight than search for 3 hours to make a well-cited takedown of Novavax hype, so take this as a vibes based assessment, and my apologies for not making this as rigorous an answer as it really should be:

The real advantage of Novavax is for people who’ve had a harsh response to the mRNA vaccines (feeling unwell for many days after getting it) due to having a lower dose of antigens in it. And that’s really it. Every other claim has been dubious at best and not strongly supported by data or a preponderence of well-constructed independent studies. Nevertheless, these claims have helped build up a lot of hype for Novavax. I also gather a lot of this started on Twitter because it moves very quickly, it’s hard to have long discussions there, the quality control is extremely bad, and it’s an easy place for people to get cults of personality and then have people citing them as “experts” on shaky grounds.

How I gather this happened:

• (largely unfounded) fears about the new mRNA tech’s safety artificially created a market “need” for a more traditionally developed vaccine.

• difficult to prove (unsubstantiated) claims about protection lasting longer and being more effective because it targets a less distal portion of the spike protein that mutates slower than the portion at the surface. But, that also might mean antibodies don’t have as easy of access to it.

• The fact that Covid mutates too fast for a 1x/year vaccination campaign to actually work (especially since very few people mask anymore so it gets nearly unmitigated spread) creates room for “well, clearly we need a better vaccine!”

• Novavax was involved in some sketchy / bad research sowing fear, uncertainty, and doubt about the mRNA vaccines (I bookmarked this /r/ZeroCovidCommunity post last year that quotes from a much longer writeup and mentions that Novavax co-authored a paper with a long-time antivaxxer to fear-monger about the mRNA vaccines! https://old.reddit.com/r/ZeroCovidCommunity/comments/1f94fpi/another_post_on_novavax_vs_mrna/) (and this is the writeup that post cites if you just want to go straight to the very long source: https://deplatformdisease.substack.com/p/novavax-has-a-good-covid-19-vaccine).

So to really answer your question: I think a subset of people strongly prefer to get Novavax for a legitimate reason (it’s gentler for them). But the people who seem really ride or die for Novavax and won’t “settle” for the mRNA vaccines are more likely people who believe Novavax actually provides more effective and longer lasting protection. That is, they’re disproportinately attached to it because they are pinning their hopes for better outcomes on it. People like feeling like we have a say in our futures, or control over our fates, even though we largely do not. It is terrifying to realize we’re at the mercy of the merciless vicissitudes of fate. So if people hear “this vaccine works better than the others”, they may latch onto it and insist it does because it is comforting to believe that they can protect themselves better by knowing the secret knowledge to get a better vaccine. Actually I had someone I knew irl tell me Novavax was the secret better vaccine that people just don’t know about. I wouldn’t mind this if the evidence backed it up, but it just doesn’t, or at least it didn’t last year when I had the bandwidth to read up a bunch on it.

Me, I’m going to just try to get whatever I can and that means mRNA, because I can just sleep through the day of fever I get from it. It’s already going to be hard enough to get any covid vaccine, I’ll take whatever they give me. Either way, the vaccine should be everyone’s last line of defense against covid, because none of these covid vaccines actually protect people from getting infected with covid. The data don’t even support them doing much to protect against long covid. They just decrease the severity of the acute infection (which is important, because a severe acute infection kills people! But it’s a far cry from the “this will protect you from infection” cure many of us hoped they’d be). Everyone I know with long covid has been up to date on vaccines. Some with the mRNAs. Some with Novavax.

Which is why I mask all year around in a well-fitting respirator. Unfortunately, barriers are the way to actually stay safe. The best advice you can follow is to get whatever updated covid vaccine you can, and keep wearing respirators. RFK Jr. is still evil for blocking people’s access to the vaccines.

As an aside: this vaccinate-people-once-a-year shit is so infuriating because with covid mutation rates we should probably be getting 2-3 mRNA vaccinations per year to stay up to date. I say specifically “mRNA” because those can be updated to a new strain much faster than traditionally-made vaccines like Novavax. This tech was supposed to revolutionize vaccinations and public health, but it hasn’t because it’s being misused (by not even using it).

Edit: I have not been convinced by any of the claims that Novavax actually lasts longer or provides better protection, and I think the way they do studies is downright unethical. They published a study with an antivaxx coauthor, they have done studies making it seem like mRNA vaccines could cause an immune problem but then didn’t disclose their financial ties to Novavax which is a HUGE conflict of interest they should have disclosed! I’m not inclined to trust Novavax’s claims. The way small biotech companies live or die on hype and market capture incentivizes too much bad science.

It’s supposed to have a longer efficacy and be tuned closer to the current dominant variant in the wild iirc. And in my own experience, there were far fewer side effects. mRNA vaxxes always knock me out for a day or two and leave me with swollen lymph nodes for a couple of weeks after. I had no issues with novavax last year. A little tired the next day, but otherwise fine.

Now that being said, I’m not 100% sure on the schedule for how you’re actually supposed to get it and I don’t know we’ll ever really know because of how scattered to the wind any official recommendations are. I’ve heard tell that your supposed to get a second dose something like 8 weeks after your first and then you’re supposed to be good for something like 6 months. But I don’t have any official information on that. I got it once last year because that was what I could afford and I hope for the best while I wear my n95s everywhere.

It is. I just uploaded a screenshot of the list to the post body.

• Mental health conditions
• Mood disorders including depression and schizophrenia spectrum disorders.