American medical corporation Johnson & Johnson (J&J) has been developing a vaccine against COVID-19 since early 2020. Belgium-based subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceutica has been collaborating with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on the vaccine. J&J have been testing a COVID-19 vaccine known as JNJ-78436735 or Ad26.COV2.S, which so far has shown a 72 percent rate of efficacy for a single dose in clinical trials.
The vaccine has been approved for emergency use in the U.S. by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Saturday, Feb. 27. J&J first began working on a vaccine in January 2020, before the coronavirus was classified as a pandemic. After receiving $456 million in aid by the U.S. in March, trials began for a one dose vaccine in July. These trials lasted throughout the remainder of 2020, and J&J announced the vaccine results Wednesday, Feb. 24. Most of the possible side effects, including pain at the injection site, nausea, headache, muscle aches and fatigue, were mild to moderate and only lasted one or two days. The vaccine also showed 85 percent rate of efficacy against severe forms of COVID-19 and 100 percent rate of efficacy against hospitalization and death.
The announcement for the vaccine rollout came at an opportune time as COVID-19 cases are decreasing in the U.S. while wait lists for a COVID-19 vaccine are quickly increasing. J&J has pledged to provide 100 million doses of the vaccine by the end of June. To accelerate this, American pharmaceutical company Merck announced Tuesday, March 2 that it would be helping to manufacture the J&J vaccine.
However, health experts fear that people will not want to receive the J&J vaccine because of its clinical trial results. Its 72 percent rate of efficacy falls short of the 95 percent efficacy rate from the studies testing the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines. However, many scientists and health experts, including U.S. chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci, have stressed that the J&J vaccine is as valid and safe an option for a COVID-19 vaccine as the other two approved vaccines.
Unlike the other two vaccines, the J&J one can be stored at standard refrigeration temperatures for at least three months. This, combined with the one dose, will increase the rate and number of people fully protected against the coronavirus in the U.S.
President Joe Biden announced Wednesday, March 10 plans to purchase an additional 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine. This would give the U.S. more than enough COVID-19 vaccines to vaccinate the country’s entire population. Before this order, the U.S. had enough vaccines for the entire U.S. adult population with an order of 200 million doses by the end of July from Pfizer and Moderna. However, the J&J vaccine order could prove useful if the other companies encounter manufacturing issues or the U.S. experiences an increase in cases.
Biden says that he plans to have the U.S. share these vaccines with the rest of the world, should it end up with a surplus.
91 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, with 32 million people being fully vaccinated. Currently, the country is averaging 2 million vaccines delivered per day. However, people still need to be following masking and social distancing guidelines, vaccinated or not, to keep everyone safe.
