Covid-19: United States authorizes Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine

third vaccine across the Atlantic. The United States on Saturday February 27 granted emergency clearance for Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine against Covid-19 for people aged 18 and over, the United States Medicines Agency (FDA) announced. This single-dose vaccine called Janssen Covid-19, which can be stored at refrigerator temperatures, joins those of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna in the huge vaccination campaign in the United States, where the pandemic has killed more than 500,000 .

After studying in detail the data of clinical trials, conducted on more than 43,000 people, a committee of experts had recommended Friday the marketing of the vaccine of the American company. At least three million doses of the “J&J” product are ready for distribution as early as next week, according to the US government.

100 million additional doses

Johnson & Johnson has pledged to ship 100 million doses to the United States by the end of June. With 600 million doses ordered in total from Pfizer and Moderna, the United States will already have, by the end of July, enough vaccine to immunize almost the entire population. But the addition of those from Johnson & Johnson could further accelerate the vaccination campaign. In total, more than 72 million bites have already been carried out in the country most bereaved by the pandemic in absolute value.

The “J&J” vaccine, which injections have already started in South Africa, is a “viral vector” vaccine. It uses as support another low virulent virus, transformed to add genetic instructions from part of the virus responsible for Covid-19. Once inside the cells, a protein typical of SARS-CoV-2 is produced, educating the immune system to recognize it. “After rigorous analysis of the data, scientists and doctors at the FDA have determined that the vaccine meets FDA criteria for safety and efficacy for emergency clearance,” the director said in a statement. of the agency’s Biological Assessment and Research Center, Peter Marks.In clinical trials, the vaccine’s efficacy was 85.9% against severe forms of Covid-19 in the United States, according to figures released by the FDA. All regions of the clinical trial combined, it was 66.1% against moderate forms of the disease, and overall “similar” for all categories of the population (ages, ethnic groups). The most frequently observed side effects were pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue and muscle pain.


You may also like

Smart filters
Entertainment
Susan

Smart filters

This entry is posted on number 21 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until May 20, 2025 and is part of