Alabamians should not hesitate to take Johnson & Johnson’s new COVID vaccine when it becomes available, even if the efficacy numbers are less impressive than vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna, state health officer Dr. Scott Harris said Thursday. -market.
“This is a vaccine that prevents death and even serious illness and hospitalization in exactly the same proportion as other vaccines,” said Harris. “And then, the best vaccine to get is the one that you offered to you.”
The US Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve an emergency use authorization for a third COVID vaccine, this one developed by Johnson & Johnson, in the coming days.
The J&J vaccine also has some advantages over the other two. It requires only one dose and does not need the same type of frozen storage as other vaccines.
Although the reported effectiveness of the J&J vaccine in preventing any type of disease is about 72% – compared to 95% for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines – Harris said the vaccine’s clinical trial data shows that it still protects recipients serious COVID disease and death at the same rates as the other two.
“In terms of preventing serious illness and hospitalization and preventing death, they are all three equivalents, they are all three, in fact, identical,” said Harris. “No one who received the J&J vaccine died of COVID. And, in fact, no one who got the J&J vaccine had a severe allergic reaction like the one we saw with mRNA vaccines. “
And in a situation where there is not enough vaccine supply for everyone, Harris said that this third option is a welcome tool for vaccinating more people and reducing the spread of the disease.
“Please don’t buy it for them and please don’t wait because you think one is better than the other,” said Harris.
What is effectiveness?
The term effectiveness is used roughly to mean effectiveness, but there are many misconceptions about what it really means.
For example, some may assume that if the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, 5% of people who get it will still have COVID. This is not correct.
According to data from the Pfizer clinical trial, in a trial involving more than 43,000 participants, only eight people tested positive for COVID after receiving the two-dose vaccine, compared with 162 in the placebo group. The researchers then calculated that the injections reduced the participants’ chances of getting COVID by 95%.
Some of the J&J tests were also conducted in South Africa, where a new, more communicable variant was highly prevalent, so just looking at the effectiveness numbers may not be a true comparison.
How much, how long?
Harris said he has no information on the amount of J&J vaccine Alabama will receive when and if emergency use authorization is granted, but it may take longer to begin implementation.
He said he saw reports in the media that J&J has between two and three million doses ready to ship, but has received no word from the government or J&J about what to expect.
Since vaccine allocations are population-based, Harris said Alabama generally receives about 1.5% of the amount made available nationwide, or 15,000 doses per million manufactured.
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines increased production and began planning to send doses to states before their emergency use permits were granted, but Harris said that has not yet happened with J&J.
“We know that the J&J vaccine will not be pre-positioned in states ready to follow the path that Pfizer and Moderna products went,” said Harris.
J&J told Congress this week that it expects to deliver 20 million doses by the end of March and 100 million by the summer.