Johnson & Johnson said its experimental Covid-19 vaccine was 66% effective at protecting people from moderate to severe disease in a large clinical trial, positive results that could pave the way for its deployment across the U.S. within weeks.
The shot didn’t test as strongly as the two Covid-19 vaccines already in use in the U.S. Its effectiveness might have been impacted by new variants that the older shots didn’t test against, however, and it will still provide strong protection, health experts said.
Its arrival could also make a big difference in vaccination efforts hobbled by limited supplies, providing a new, large source of doses. And many health authorities might find it easier to administer the J&J vaccine, which is easier to store and involves just one shot, while the other vaccines require two.
“The availability of the J&J vaccine will be a terrific asset,” said William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine at Vanderbilt University who serves as a liaison to a federal vaccine advisory committee. “That could help us get through the bottleneck that we’re in at the present time.”
In its late-stage trial of 44,325 adults aged 18 and older, the J&J vaccine also appeared to be generally safe and well tolerated, the company said Friday, though some of the volunteers reported side effects like fever.
throwohhaimark2 on January 29th, 2021 at 15:55 UTC »
The good side of this being a less effective vaccine is that it suggests that mRNA vaccines just slap.
If this was equally effective it would suggest that the high effectiveness of Pfizer/Moderna is due to the coronavirus itself rather than the new technology. But this and Astrazeneca suggest that mRNA vaccines are genuinely an improvement and could conceivably be used to improve the world in all sorts of other ways in the near future.
EDIT: Just editing this to mention some responses have some good points about the new variants and single dose regime being potential confounding factors.
coocoocoonoicenoice on January 29th, 2021 at 14:51 UTC »
I just listened to their conference call. They said no cases in the vaccination group resulted hospitalization or death.
Results were consistent across age groups (I believe about a third of the trial was 60+).
Furthermore, they conducted the study across 3 continents to test against variants. Regardless of infection rate or variant, the 85% protection against severe illness was consistent.
They are on track to provide 100 million doses to the US by the end of June and 1 billion worldwide by the end of the year. I believe the cost is $10 per shot and they can be stored at normal freezer temperatures. The production capacity combined with the cost and ease of transport should make a huge impact across the world.
johnFvr on January 29th, 2021 at 14:01 UTC »
" In the more than 44,000-person study, the vaccine prevented 66% of moderate to severe cases of Covid-19, according to a company statement on Friday. And it was particularly effective at stopping severe disease, preventing 85% of severe infections and 100% of hospitalizations and deaths. "
What does it mean severe infection? If it doesn't require hospitalization, is it really severe?