New study suggests Johnson & Johnson is less effective against variants

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine may be less effective at fighting coronavirus variants than other vaccines, a new study suggests.

The results, published by bioRxiv but not yet peer-reviewed or published in a journal, suggest that mRNA vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna may protect against delta and lambda strains better than the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The vaccine’s effectiveness in neutralizing the disease “declined dramatically” with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to the study.

Overall, the results showed that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were 94-95% effective in preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19, and Johnson & Johnson 66.9%.

Nathaniel Landau, a virologist at NYU’s Grossman School of Medicine who led the study, told the New York Times that researchers don’t want to scare people away from getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, but say it can be supplemented. with another dose of the vaccine. Johnson & Johnson vaccine, or with a different vaccine.

“The message we wanted to get across was not that people shouldn’t get the J&J vaccine, but we hope that in the future it will be boosted either with another dose of J&J or with a boost with Pfizer. or Moderna, ”Landau said.

Another expert said he believed the effectiveness of Johnson & Johnson would be increased if split over two doses – a theory he said has been proven by various studies.

“I’ve always thought, and I’ve said many times, that the J&J vaccine is a two-dose vaccine,” John Moore, a virologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York, told The Times.

The new study comes two weeks after Johnson & Johnson announced that their vaccine was effective against the delta variant.

“We believe our vaccine provides long-lasting protection against COVID-19 and triggers neutralizing activity against the delta variant. This adds to the strong body of clinical data supporting the ability of our single-injection vaccine to protect against several variants of concern, ”Paul Stoffels, Scientific Director of Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.