Beautiful Virgin Islands

Tuesday, Sep 16, 2025

Coronavirus FAQs: Can I Drink Between Vaccine Doses? What Is 'Vaccine Efficacy'?

Coronavirus FAQs: Can I Drink Between Vaccine Doses? What Is 'Vaccine Efficacy'?

People who've had dose 1 are wondering ... can I have a few drinks before dose 2 or will that muck things up? Also: Do you really understand the concept of "vaccine efficacy"? It's complicated!
I have started hearing that vaccine recipients should abstain from alcohol between the first and second doses of the COVID vaccine. Is this a thing?


It's true that chronic, heavy drinking and binge drinking can suppress your immune system, Kennedy says. And there are plenty of health reasons not to drink alcohol, he adds. But an occasional drink here and there — including a celebratory toast after your second shot? "That won't have an effect," he says.

What, exactly, does it mean that a vaccine is, for example, 92% efficacious? Does it mean there's an 8% chance of my getting COVID-19? If so, why would anyone want to get a vaccine that's only 60 or 65% efficacious?


I find the subject of vaccine efficacy very confusing!


Don't worry: If you find it confusing, you're probably on the right track! Efficacy rates (and effectiveness rates and point estimates and confidence intervals) should appear at least a little confusing to most non-biostatisticians. The concepts rely on statistical thinking that many aren't familiar with, says Brianne Barker, a virologist at Drew University.

The tendency to oversimplify has led many people to the same — mistaken — conclusion that an efficacy rate of 92 percent would mean that of 100 vaccinated people, 8 of them would get sick during a pandemic.

But that's not the case. Fortunately, a vaccine with a 92 percent efficacy rate actually means your chances of getting the disease is much, much less than 8 percent. It means that if you were exposed to the disease, your chances of getting infected would be 92 percent less if you were vaccinated than if you weren't.

If you want to geek out on the exact math on how much your chances of getting COVID drops after a vaccine, you'd have to know what the probability of getting sick is, Barker says. "And that varies based on the population that you look at."

Say you originally had a 10% chance of getting sick without being vaccinated. If you got that vaccine with an efficacy rate of 92%, your chance of getting sick would drop from 10% to less than 1% — 0.8%, to be exact.

In reality, the trials found that the probability of getting sick in the placebo groups was much less than 10%. In the Pfizer trial, for example, it was 0.79% — or less than one per 100 people. Participants who got the real vaccine had just a .04 percent chance of getting COVID ... that's 4 in 10,000 people.

While efficacy rates should, theoretically, make comparisons among different vaccines possible, a number of variables have made it more like "comparing an efficacy rate of 70 percent to purple," says Richard Kennedy, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., and co-director of the Vaccine Research Group.

"You're laughing because that's a ludicrous comparison," he says. But to truly make an apples-to-apples comparison, he says, you'd have to run the vaccines head-to-head in the same clinical trial. As it was, the characteristics of the participants in the various trials were different (Johnson & Johnson enrolled more people at higher risk, for example), variants were circulating during some trials and not others, and each trial defined the disease differently. (For example, Moderna defined a COVID-19 infection as a positive PCR test plus two symptoms from one group or one symptom from another group. Pfizer defined it as a positive PCR test plus one symptom.)

"The devil really is in the details," he says.

Can I get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and then sign up for Pfizer or Moderna?


Theoretically, that should be fine, Barker and Kennedy agree. In real life, it's unlikely to happen — "it's hard enough to get one in the first place," Barker says, and "having already received one shot of Johnson & Johnson, you'd be considered fully vaccinated and probably no one is going to let you get another one because you're taking it away from someone who needs it," Kennedy says.

However, your body would likely handle the mixing and matching just fine, since all of the vaccines have the same antigen, Kennedy explains. The antigen is the component that your immune response recognizes — in this case, the spike protein. It's akin to the flu vaccine, he says. We get influenza vaccines every year, often with similar strains, without worrying about which company made it. When antigens are different, however, your body usually develops weaker antibodies.

"Another thing to consider is what will happen if we need booster doses in 6 months, 2 years, whenever," he says. "I doubt that we will have the resources or ability to only provide the same vaccine that you originally received."

And can people who have an allergic reaction to their first Pfizer or Moderna shot follow up with Johnson & Johnson?


Again, this may work in theory, Kennedy says, but until vaccines are more widely available it may not be possible. In the meantime, be reassured that your first dose may provide pretty good protection. After all, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines weren't studied as single doses, so the efficacy rate after a month or two could be higher than you think, he points out.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
Indian Student Engineers Propose “Project REBIRTH” to Protect Aircraft from Crashes Using AI, Airbags and Smart Materials
French Debt Downgrade Piles Pressure on Macron’s New Prime Minister
US and UK Near Tech, Nuclear and Whisky Deals Ahead of Trump Trip
One in Three Europeans Now Uses TikTok, According to the Chinese Tech Giant
Could AI Nursing Robots Help Healthcare Staffing Shortages?
NATO Deploys ‘Eastern Sentry’ After Russian Drones Violate Polish Airspace
Anesthesiologist Left Operation Mid-Surgery to Have Sex with Nurse
Tens of Thousands of Young Chinese Get Up Every Morning and Go to Work Where They Do Nothing
The New Life of Novak Djokovic
The German Owner of Politico Mathias Döpfner Eyes Further U.S. Media Expansion After Axel Springer Restructuring
Suspect Arrested: Utah Man in Custody for Charlie Kirk’s Fatal Shooting
In a politically motivated trial: Bolsonaro Sentenced to 27 Years for Plotting Coup After 2022 Defeat
German police raid AfD lawmaker’s offices in inquiry over Chinese payments
Turkish authorities seize leading broadcaster amid fraud and tax investigation
Volkswagen launches aggressive strategy to fend off Chinese challenge in Europe’s EV market
ChatGPT CEO signals policy to alert authorities over suicidal youth after teen’s death
The British legal mafia hit back: Banksy mural of judge beating protester is scrubbed from London court
Surpassing Musk: Larry Ellison becomes the richest man in the world
Embarrassment for Starmer: He fired the ambassador photographed on Epstein’s 'pedophile island'
Manhunt after 'skilled sniper' shot Charlie Kirk. Footage: Suspect running on rooftop during panic
Effective Protest Results: Nepal’s Prime Minister Resigns as Youth-Led Unrest Shakes the Nation
Qatari prime minister says Netanyahu ‘killed any hope’ for Israeli hostages
King Charles and Prince Harry Share First In-Person Moment in 19 Months
Starmer Establishes Economic ‘Budget Board’ to Centralise Policy and Rebuild Business Trust
France Erupts in Mass ‘Block Everything’ Protests on New PM’s First Day
Poland Shoots Down Russian Drones in Airspace Violation During Ukraine Attack
Brazilian police say ex-President Bolsonaro had planned to flee to Argentina seeking asylum
Trinidad Leader Applauds U.S. Naval Strike and Advocates Forceful Action Against Traffickers
Kim Jong Un Oversees Final Test of New High-Thrust Solid-Fuel Rocket Engine
Apple Introduces Ultra-Thin iPhone Air, Enhanced 17 Series and New Health-Focused Wearables
Macron Appoints Sébastien Lecornu as Prime Minister Amid Budget Crisis and Political Turmoil
Supreme Court temporarily allows Trump to pause billions in foreign aid
Charlie Sheen says his father, Martin Sheen, turned him in to the police: 'The greatest betrayal possible'
Vatican hosts first Catholic LGBTQ pilgrimage
×