- The launch of the coronavirus vaccine remains somewhat uneven in the United States, mired in everything from states with complex levels of containers to follow, to supply limits.
- President-elect Joe Biden made comments on Friday that outlined his plan to significantly improve the launch of the COVID vaccine after next week, when he and vice president-elect Kamala Harris take office.
- Meanwhile, interim findings associated with the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine trial show significant promise, suggesting that another COVID vaccine will be authorized in the U.S. soon.
News around the coronavirus vaccine continues to increase, with the end of the week bringing a number of new developments – including the Trump administration misleading the nation about the size of the U.S. vaccine stock for President-elect Biden by revealing more details of its comprehensive national COVID vaccination strategy. The latter, among other things, will involve encouraging states to abandon complicated levels and make more vaccination sites and federal resources available so that the pace of vaccination is dramatically accelerated. As for the first, it appears that the Trump administration completely lied or fumbled (or some combination of the two) when it comes to the United States’ vaccine reserves.
The administration of Health and Human Services of the Trump administration, Alex Azar, announced on Tuesday that the administration would be “releasing all the supply (of vaccine) for order by the states, instead of keeping the second doses in reserve”. Except, ops – according to what a senior management official said CNN, what reservation we had already been used. At least the vaccine news isn’t all bad – just look at the new trial data published earlier this week on New England Journal of Medicine regarding the safety, efficacy and potential side effects of Johnson & Johnson’s new single-dose coronavirus vaccine.
Best deal of the day 
Buy the best-selling Powecom KN95 masks before they run out! Price:$ 25.99 
Available on Amazon, BGR can receive a commission Available on Amazon BGR can receive a commission
According to the trial results, Johnson & Johnson researchers randomly assigned just over 800 participants to receive a high or small dose of the vaccine or a placebo. The results show that after 29 days post-vaccination, at least 90% of study participants developed neutralizing antibodies – a number that grew to 100% 57 days after vaccination.
Some of the side effects of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine, which will soon be authorized in the U.S., include:
- Fever
- Headache / muscle aches
- Fatigue
- Injection site pain
And that is it, until now. Pain at the vaccine injection site appears to be the most common side effect among participants in the J&J study. Hopefully, this good news will help pave the way for a quick decision on whether to authorize Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine for use in the United States, where part of the bottleneck has been a self-imposed limitation on vaccine supply. “Self-imposed,” in the sense that the mistakes of the Trump administration included not buying enough of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to cause a huge drop in the U.S. so far, among other things.
Andy is a reporter in Memphis who also contributes to vehicles like Fast Company and The Guardian. When not writing about technology, he can be found perched protectively on his burgeoning vinyl collection, as well as nurturing his Whovianism and devouring a variety of TV shows that you probably don’t like.