This morning, February 24, the company Johnson and Johnson announced that they have a vaccine that protects against COVID-19. They said the vaccine has had a 72 percent over efficacy rate in the United States and 64 percent in South Africa. Statistics have also shown that it is 86 percent effective towards people with severe forms of COVID. If this vaccine gets approved by the F.D.A., this will be the third vaccine that has been developed under a year that will benefit Americans.

As early as Saturday the vaccine could be approved to be administered if the vaccine advisory panel approves it this upcoming Friday. J&J’S vaccine will be easier to administer because it can be stored at normal temperatures for longer periods of time, unlike the Modera and Pfizer that need to be stored at cold temperatures. Dan Barouch, a virologist who researched the vaccine, told the New York Times, “With a J&J vaccine, we’ll be able to accelerate the vaccine rollout for our country and for the world.” If the vaccine is authorized, about four million vaccinations will be ready for shipment and another 12 million will be administered by the end of February. Johnson & Johson has plans on putting out 100 million doses to America by the end of June which could help bring things back to normal by summer.

The F.D.A. did their first technical analysis on the vaccine and confirmed that the vaccine is safe but has a lower efficacy rate compared to Moderna and Pfizer. Out of the 45,000 people that went under trial for the vaccine, it was consistent across different races and ages of people but there was still a lot of statistical uncertainty. They are unclear about the results because vaccines can protect people from getting covid but they do not know if shots can prevent people from getting infected. The F.D.A. said that “There is uncertainty about the interpretation of these data and definitive conclusions cannot be drawn at this time.” The uncertainty of immunization will make the pandemic longer if it is not effective as it is expected to be.

Since more vaccines have been administered, covid cases have gone down by about 37 percent over the past two weeks and hopefully, the decline in cases can continue. Major cities around the country are still at risk and you can see how bad your country is here: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/us/covid-risk-map.html

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/24/science/johnson-johnson-covid-vaccine.html