Thursday, 28 Mar 2024

US will start giving out one-shot Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine from today

Health care workers in the US will start administering Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot Covid vaccine from today.

It comes after the vaccine was approved for emergency use by America’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA), paving the way for the delivery of up to four million shots this week.

Senior Biden administration officials have said the roll out of J&J’s vaccine will begin immediately following its approval by regulators, as officials aim to administer 20 million shots before the end of the month.

The shot has shown to be 72% effective at preventing Covid and 86% effective at preventing severe illness and death from Covid, the FDA has said.

J&J’s vaccine only needs one shot to achieve those results and is now the third vaccine to gain approval in the US. Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines are already in use and achieve an average efficacy of around 95%.

While the vaccine will be administered for the first time today, officials have warned that they expect supply to be ‘uneven’ through March, reports NBC News.

Johnson & Johnson plans to distribute 100 million doses by summer, enough to fully vaccinate 100 million Americans.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, signed off an advisory committee’s recommendation to endorse the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Sunday.

She said the shots are coming at a ‘potentially pivotal time.’

‘CDC’s latest data suggest that recent declines in Covid-19 cases may be stalling and potentially leveling off at still very high numbers’, Walensky said in a statement.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is only to be given to adults 18 and older and is the only single-dose shot for the virus.

Dr Anthony Fauci added: ‘All three vaccines are highly efficacious.

‘If you go to a place and you have J&J and that’s the one that’s available now, I would take it. I personally would do the same thing. I think people need to get vaccinated as quickly and as expeditiously as possible.’

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