PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Food and Drug Administration approved Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use Saturday evening. Medical experts are calling it a game-changer.
Three vaccines on the market are better than two, said KYW Newsradio Medical Editor Dr. Brian McDonough.
"We're in a battle against time because there's mutant strains," he stressed. "We wanna slow down the impact of these mutant strains and one of the best ways we can do it is by getting vaccines out, by getting shots in arms."
McDonough said the best part about Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is that it consists of a single dose, as opposed to two.
"I think that's really important, because a lot of the operational logistics are what are really tough about the two-dose vaccines," he opined.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center and professor of pediatrics at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, agreed with that view.
"We don't have enough vaccines right now to populate our population so this third vaccine gives us another weapon in the fight against this vaccine," he said.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has an 85% efficacy rating against severe COVID-19 cases, 28 days after the shot. But Offit said any comparison between it and the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines is apples to oranges, in large part because it was tested internationally, while the two-dose vaccines were largely tested in the United States.
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"The Johnson & Johnson trial was also performed in South Africa, where the South African variant is common. It was performed in Brazil where the Brazilian variant is common," he said.
"So the vaccines were somewhat less protective against those variants although still protective, fortunately against severe disease, meaning hospitalization and death."
Health officials in the Tri-State area said Johnson & Johnson isn't wasting any time.
Philadelphia officials report they'll get 13,000 doses, while Delaware is expecting 8,000.
And before Johnson & Johnson got the green light from the FDA, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced 70,000 doses for the Garden State by the end of this week.
In all, the company said it expects to ship 20 million doses to the United States by the end of March. By summer, they predict delivering 100 million doses.
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McDonough said any vaccine you get is a step in the right direction.
"Whether it's Pfizer, Moderna, J&J, is that it dramatically cuts down what would be the illnesses that would put a person in the hospital and in the ICU," he said.
Offit, meanwhile, noted Johnson & Johnson is currently in trials for a second dose in the United States. "If they find out that that second dose provides even better immunity and even better protection, then I think we may, later in the year, find that it is a two-dose vaccine," he said.
"But right now it's a single-dose vaccine, as it should be, because it's certainly highly effective against severe disease with just a single dose and very soon after that single dose you develop an immunity which is definitely an advantage."
The true test, he added, will come next winter.
"This is essentially a winter respiratory virus so you're now seeing that cases and hospitalizations are decreasing as we move from winter to spring, but I think that what will happen - if we get about 80% of this population infected, either by immunization or natural infection by say summer or early next fall - then when next winter comes the virus will not come soaring back," he posited.
"But if we don't do that, we'll face trouble next winter."