mRNA vs Protein-Based COVID-19 Vaccines: What Pharmacists Can Tell Patients

In an interview with Pharmacy Times, Jodi Longueil, PharmD, medication safety coordinator with Kaiser Permanente Northwest, discussed which patients remain at highest risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes, how pharmacists can answer questions about vaccine platforms, and how to prevent errors at vaccination clinics.

Longueil said that risk rises with age starting at 50 years, which makes older adults a key group to reach, and that racial and ethnic minorities also face a higher risk of severe illness or hospitalization. If patients ask, pharmacists can describe protein-based vaccines as a more traditional platform and mRNA vaccines as a newer but extensively researched platform; both are considered safe, with somewhat different adverse effect profiles.

Longueil stressed that getting vaccinated matters more than which vaccine a patient receives, and she urged pharmacies to set up storage and clinic processes that make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing.

Expert Insights

Pharmacy Times: Can you please introduce yourself?

Jodi Longueil, PharmD: I’m Jodi Longueil, and I’m a pharmacist in Portland, Oregon, with Kaiser Permanente, and I work in medication safety.

Pharmacy Times: What does the current data show about who remains at highest risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes and long COVID?

Longueil: The list of individuals at highest risk for COVID complications—it’s a very long list. But I would say that some of the patients that we need to reach the most are elderly. The risk increases with age, starting at 50. My 85-year-old mother is over 500 times more likely to be hospitalized and die from COVID than I am, or my younger kids. So, age is a big factor. Racial and ethnic minorities are also at higher risk for developing severe COVID or being hospitalized.

Pharmacy Times: How should pharmacists explain the differences between mRNA and protein-based COVID-19 vaccines to patients?

Longueil: Explaining the differences between vaccine platforms can be something that pharmacists can do if asked, but it is not necessarily important to a lot of patients. Many patients simply want the COVID vaccine. If they do have questions about the different platforms, we can say that the protein-based vaccine follows a more traditional platform, like some of our other vaccines, and the mRNA vaccine is a newer platform for use in the United States but has been extensively researched. Both are considered safe, and their adverse effect profiles are different. Depending on what they’ve had in the past and what their concerns are, that can help guide the decision. But the most important thing is that they receive a vaccine, not which vaccine they receive.

Pharmacy Times: Is there anything you would like to add?

Longueil: A final thought that I would add is that when we’re planning our vaccination clinics and storing vaccines, we need to make sure that we have processes in place to prevent errors. Anytime humans are involved, there is potential for error. If we can set up our systems to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing, it helps protect not only our patients but our health care providers as well.