On Saturday, February 27, the U.S. government authorized Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, enabling millions more Americans to be vaccinated in the coming weeks and setting the vaccine up for additional approvals around the world.
As was reported by Reuters, J&J vaccine is the third vaccine to be authorized in the United States, following the ones from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna, both of which require two doses.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced the emergency use authorization of the J&J vaccine for adults aged 18 and older following Friday’s unanimous endorsement by the agency’s panel of outside experts. Shipments to vaccination sites are expected to begin Sunday or Monday.
However, the U.S. President Joe Biden cautioned Americans against celebrating too soon.
“Things are still likely to get worse again as new variants spread,” he said in a statement, urging people to continue washing their hands, wearing masks, and maintaining social distancing. “There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we cannot let our guard down now or assume that victory is inevitable,” he said.
The 44,000-person global trial of the J&J’s vaccine indicated that the vaccine was found to be 66% effective at preventing moderate-to-severe COVID-19 four weeks after inoculation. It was 100% effective in preventing hospitalization and death due to the virus. There were very few serious side effects reported in the trial.
J&J’s vaccine uses a common cold virus known as adenovirus type 26 to introduce coronavirus proteins into cells in the body and trigger an immune response. J&J is testing a two-dose version of its vaccine, with results expected this summer.
J&J’s vaccine is expected to be used widely around the globe because it can be shipped and stored at normal refrigerator temperatures, making distribution easier than for the Pfizer/BioNTech SE and Moderna vaccines, which must be shipped frozen. The J&J vaccine is also under review by the European Union, where deliveries are expected starting in April and would build on the region’s thin supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca Plc shots.