great news today! The Johnson & Johnson 1 dose vaccine is getting approved! This is wonderful as it has the potential to speed up the ability to get people vaccines.
Not only is this great because it is another vaccine to add to the pool, but this one needs only one dose and is not as temperature dependent!
WaPo has a great story on this but unfortunately buries the lede. The headline is:
FDA review confirms safety and efficacy of single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, especially against severe cases
They go on to say
The review, although positive, was more nuanced than regulators’ assessments of the first two coronavirus vaccines, reflecting a pandemic that has entered a more complicated phase as variants capable of slipping by some aspects of immunity have emerged. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was more than 85 percent effective at preventing severe illness, including in a region dominated by a concerning variant, but only 66 percent protective overall when moderate cases were included.
This makes it sound like the vaccine isn’t that great.
CNN similarly leads with numbers that don’t sound great
The efficacy of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against moderate to severe/critical Covid-19 across all geographic areas was 66.9% at least 14 days after the single dose vaccination and 66.1% at least 28 days after vaccination, a new analysis meant to brief the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee said
It isn’t until you get further into the WaPo article that you read:
“We know this vaccine prevents 85 percent of the severe disease. . . . It was 100 percent effective in preventing hospitalization and deaths, and that’s really what’s important,” said Nancy M. Bennett, a professor of medicine and public health sciences at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry.
100% effective in preventing hospitalizations and death. 100%. This shot not only makes you 85% less likely to get seriously ill (where you feel sick for weeks, like a really awful flu) but it eliminated hospitalizations and death completely in trials. It turns this into an inconvenience, basically. Something we can live with and continue our normal lives. Amazing.
So get vaccinated as soon as you can. Continue to wear masks and distance (either with or without the vaccine) for the time being. But allow yourself to feel HOPEFUL about this.
We got great news today!
