The United States has three vaccines approved for distribution and now people are choosing what they want.
All three have been shown to be effective in preventing Covid-19 disease, and especially in hospital admissions and death – and health officials said the best vaccine is the one that is offered.
Still, there seems to be a growing preference for the Pfizer and Modern jabs over the Johnson & Johnson option.
In early March, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan rejected the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for city residents, suggesting that the other two jabs available in the United States were superior.
“I will do everything I can to ensure that Detroit city residents get the best,” he told a news conference.
After widespread protests from the public health community, the mayor turned around, saying he had “full confidence” that the injection was safe and effective.
But, like Duggan, some Americans have also expressed concern about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and its overall efficacy rates – although health officials have warned that those figures do not tell the whole story.
Some say they would rather postpone vaccination than taking Johnson & Johnson, potentially damaging the distribution plans of community health officials.
“I had an appointment for a vaccine this week and I canceled it because I heard they were distributing Johnson & Johnson. I’m not taking [that vaccine] “a Washington DC resident told the BBC.
Now, health officials like Dr. Michele Andrasik are trying to reassure Americans that any authorized vaccine offered to them is good to get.
“On the one hand, people are excited because there is only one chance [for Johnson & Johnson]and on the other hand, there is a lot of confusion as to what the efficacy results actually say and that means it’s not that good, “said Dr. Andrasik, senior scientist at Fred Hutch’s Vaccines and Infectious Diseases Division, to the BBC .
In February, US regulators formally approved Johnson & Johnson’s single-injection coronavirus vaccine – the last to receive the green light.
Unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use the new mRNA vaccine technology and require two injections, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses a common cold virus that was developed to make it harmless.
It then safely loads part of the coronavirus genetic code into the body. This is enough for the body to recognize the threat and then learn to fight the coronavirus.
President Joe Biden showed confidence in the vaccine. This month, he announced that the United States will order another 100 million doses from Johnson & Johnson, doubling the amount available to Americans.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that all vaccines available in the United States were good and stressed that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “is not the weakest vaccine”.
The concern varies with the efficacy data released by clinical trials – but those numbers are not all they appear to be, experts say.
Health officials emphasized that the most important statistic in combating the pandemic is that all three vaccines have 100% prevention of hospital admissions and death from the virus.
Pfizer and Moderna were also tested before newer and contagious variants spread, making a difference in testing.
“They were not compared face to face. They were compared in different circumstances,” said Dr. Fauci.
In addition, the CDC explains that all vaccines are more effective than the annual flu vaccine.
“The end result is that Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer are incredibly effective in preventing the progression of serious illness, hospitalization, ICU admission or on ventilation or death,” said Dr. Andrasik.
Another positive aspect of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, community health advocates say, is that it is the only single injection vaccine available in the United States.
It can also be more convenient when it comes to distribution – especially in places that are difficult to access, such as some poor or rural regions. But there is a concern that sending just that vaccine to these areas could increase stigma.
“Heritage involves choice,” says Dr. Andrasik.
“So, if you have only one choice and you are a disadvantaged population, I think that feeds the idea of inequality, uncertainty and questioning why we only have that choice.”
She adds: “I think all vaccines should be available to everyone. I think the justification for sending Johnson & Johnson to the countryside [and poorer] communities is because of access to care. “
Community leaders and health professionals like Dr. Andrasik are making efforts to spread awareness about the vaccine and combat misinformation.
When more than half a million people died from Covid in the United States, “as soon as it is my turn, I will take whatever vaccine is available to me at that time,” she says.
What are the other concerns?
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was also in the news recently after the United States Catholic Bishops’ Conference – which represents the Church in the United States – and others expressed “moral concerns” about the vaccine.
The concern is how it is produced with cell lines derived from abortion – cells taken in the 1980s “originally isolated from fetal tissue, some of which were originally derived from an aborted fetus” – as a series of other vaccines available today.
Johnson & Johnson used a similar method in the development of its Ebola vaccine – and no Covid-19 vaccine contains human tissue of any kind.
The conference advised that, given the choice, Catholics should get an alternative vaccine.
The advice given by the United States conference seemed to contradict the Vatican’s own position that such vaccines are “morally acceptable”.
Other Catholic leaders rejected the idea that church members should avoid this vaccine.
In Connecticut, the Archbishop of Hartford and another local clergy declared in a statement that all residents “must feel free in their right mind to receive any of the vaccines currently available … for the sake of their own health and the common good” .
While many other vaccines, such as those used for chicken pox and rubella, have been developed in a similar way, the latest concerns of Catholic leaders about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have heightened skepticism among some Americans.
Johnson & Johnson is not the only vaccine that faces concerns. Oxford-AstraZeneca – which the US is considering authorizing – has been suspended in more than a dozen European countries because of concerns about blood clots.
The EU drug regulator has since said the vaccine is “safe and effective” and Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would resume using the vaccine.