Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine gets the nod from CDC committee

“I just want to state explicitly how very grateful I am that we now have three highly effective vaccines,” said ACIP member Dr. Matthew Daley of the Institute for Health Research with Kaiser Permanente Colorado.

The vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine arm, can be kept at regular refrigerator temperatures, which experts said would make it much easier to distribute than vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech.

“During a pandemic, the data show that the best utilization of resources is to employ all available vaccines with acceptable vaccine efficacy. This will save cost and lives,” the CDC’s Dr. Sara Oliver told the ACIP meeting. A single-dose vaccine has an advantage, particularly in settings where a second dose “would be challenging.” For example, it could be used to help protect the homeless, people in the justice system, and those with limited access to health care like people who are homebound or live in rural areas, Oliver said.

The vaccine was tested in more than 44,000 people in the US, South Africa and Latin America. Globally, it was 66.1% effective against moderate to severe/critical Covid-19 at least four weeks after vaccination, according to an FDA analysis. In the US, it is considered 72% effective, and offered 86% protection against severe forms of the disease.

More research is needed to now for sure, but the FDA analysis also hinted that the J&J vaccine may help prevent asymptomatic infections.

There is some concern among public health leaders that some people will think the J&J vaccine is “second class,” because its efficacy is lower than the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, but the experts say it is important that people remember these are totally different vaccines.

The J&J vaccine was tested at a time when there were more variants in circulation. Tested in South Africa and in Brazil, an FDA analysis found that the majority of the Covid-19 cases in the J&J trials were due to variants that are thought to be more contagious.

“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was tested against the South Africa variant in South Africa, tested against the variant in Brazil. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines weren’t, we are not comparing the same thing,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University School of Public Health. “When you look at what we really compare about which is preventing hospitalizations and deaths, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine comes in at 100% once it’s had a chance to work.”

“This is a terrific vaccine and I would certainly, I would take it,” Jha said Sunday on CNN’s Inside Politics. “I would recommend it to my family and I think people who are worried about that headline number, I say ignore it because that’s not really what you care about.”

The three Covid-19 vaccines have not been compared head to head, so it would be impossible to know if one is better than the other.

“These are three highly efficacious vaccines,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “I can tell you I have been fully vaccinated with one that was available. It was the Moderna. If I were not vaccinated now and I had a choice of getting a J&J vaccine now or waiting for another vaccine, I would take whatever vaccine would be available to me as quickly as possible.”

“We want to get as many people vaccinated as quickly and expeditiously as possible,” Fauci said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. “So this is good news because we have another very good vaccine in the mix.”