Expert explains why he would take Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Johnson & Johnson’s single-injection Covid-19 vaccine was found to be 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease in a global phase 3 trial, but 85% in severe disease, the company said on Friday .

The vaccine was 72% effective against moderate and severe disease in the United States, the company said.

This is a stark difference to the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, and it can give people a break when they are unsure of which vaccine to get or when to get one. Vaccines already on the market in the United States are generally around 95% effective against symptomatic Covid-19, with perhaps even higher effectiveness against severe cases.

Experts say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by its Janssen vaccine arm, will still be useful against the pandemic in the United States and around the world, even if the single-dose vaccine does not become the first choice for many.

For Johnson & Johnson, the effectiveness against moderate and severe effects varied from country to country: 72% in the United States, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa. This was measured from one month after firing.

In South Africa, 95% of the cases in the trial were due to a variant known as B.1.351, which is known to be more contagious and carries mutations that can make the virus less sensitive to the immune response of antibodies – including antibodies caused by vaccination.

With this variant, “we have less protection against milder forms of Covid than in the United States, where there were more typical circulating variants,” said Dr Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development. of the company, to CNN. Correspondent, Dr Sanjay Gupta.

Even those who had moderate cases of Covid-19 in the trial tended to develop a smoother course and fewer symptoms, he added.

But for Mammen, the main outcome was the vaccine’s effectiveness in preventing serious illness, regardless of variant or age group.

From one month after the stroke, all hospitalizations and all deaths occurred in the placebo group.

The results are based on an analysis of more than 44,000 participants in eight countries, with a total of 468 Covid-19 cases divided between those receiving the vaccine or the placebo. The results have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal, but the company said it plans to do so “in the coming weeks.”

Johnson & Johnson are expected to apply for emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next week, which Mammen says could happen in late February.