All about risk
Excerpt:
Johnson & Johnson released data showing that a booster dose to its one-shot coronavirus vaccine provides a strong immune response months after people receive a first dose.
J&J said in statement Tuesday that it ran two early studies in people previously given its vaccine and found that a second dose produced an increased antibody response in adults from age 18 to 55. The study’s results haven’t yet been peer-reviewed.
Publication Date: 21 Sept 2021
Publication Site: AP News
Link: https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/j-and-j-and-delta-update
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Excerpt:
Neutralizing antibodies in a lab is difficult to map to real world efficacy. Thankfully, some scientists figured out a mathematical model (here). Using their model, this means the efficacy of J&J would be around 55-60% against symptomatic disease. It will still work well against severe disease.
In the same update, J&J said their vaccine continues to work over time, with strong responses for up to 8 months. This is because there’s only 8 months of data; we are optimistic it will last longer.
Author(s): Katelyn Jetelina
Publication Date: 2 July 2021
Publication Site: Your Local Epidemiologist on substack
Link: https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison
Excerpt:
In the United States, the number of cases and deaths that had been rising to a peak for almost a year have been flattening out, thanks, in large part, to COVID-19 vaccinations that began in December. As the weeks pass, more reports have been coming out about the effectiveness of the vaccines that are in use and the potential of those still in development. So, how do they differ?
It’s important to keep up, but it’s also a daunting task, given the flood of information (and misinformation) coming at us from so many directions.
Vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson are being administered in the U.S. right now, and others are on track to do the same.
We mapped out a comparison of the most prominent COVID-19 vaccines.
Author(s): Kathy Katella
Publication Date: 1 July 2021 (originally published February 2021, updated)
Publication Site: Yale Medicine
Link: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-55274833
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Excerpt:
The UK has four vaccines approved for use: Pfizer-BioNTech, Oxford-AstraZeneca, Moderna and Janssen; three of which require two doses for maximum protection.
The campaign to reach as many people as quickly as possible was boosted by a shift in policy in early January – to prioritise the first dose of a vaccine, with a second dose up to 12 weeks later, a bigger gap than originally planned.
Progress made in the UK so far means the country continues to be among those with the highest vaccination rates globally.
Author(s): The Visual and Data Journalism Team
Publication Date: 15 June 2021
Publication Site: BBC
Excerpt:
The United States will resume Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations after health officials lifted an 11-day pause on the shots at the recommendation of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on Friday.
The pause in inoculations was triggered by concerns over six cases of a rare blood clot that occurred out of more than 7 million people who had received the vaccine in the U.S.
The panel voted 10 to 4 to recommend restarting the vaccinations, saying the benefits of the shot outweigh the rare risk of blood clots. However, the group suggested that the vaccine include a warning about the increased risk of the very rare but severe blood clots.
Author(s): Brittany Bernstein
Publication Date: 23 April 2021
Publication Site: National Review
Excerpt:
U.S. health authorities came close to simply warning about a blood-clotting risk from Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, but they decided to recommend pausing use out of concern doctors would improperly treat the condition, people familiar with the matter said.
Over the previous four weeks, U.S. health officials had become alarmed about similar blood-clotting conditions in Europe involving a Covid-19 vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC, the people said. The officials dug into a U.S. vaccine safety database and identified the cases of great concern, but they debated what action to take.
By the night of April 12, the officials resolved that urgent action was needed, the people said. Four of six women in the U.S. who developed the clots days after vaccination had initially been given blood thinner heparin, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Its use could have worsened the patients’ condition, the people said.
Author(s): Thomas M. Burton and Betsy McKay
Publication Date: 18 April 2021
Publication Site: Wall Street Journal
Link: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/politics/johnson-johnson-vaccine-blood-clots-fda-cdc.html
Excerpt:
Federal health agencies on Tuesday called for an immediate pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within about two weeks of vaccination.
All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second woman in Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition.
Nearly seven million people in the United States have received Johnson & Johnson shots so far, and roughly nine million more doses have been shipped out to the states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Author(s): Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere, Carl Zimmer
Publication Date: 13 April 2021
Publication Site: New York Times
Excerpt:
The Detroit Free Press reports that the mayor declined to accept a shipment of 6,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine. Why? At a press conference on Tuesday, the mayor asserted, “Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Moderna and Pfizer are the best. And I am going to do everything I can to make sure the residents of the city of Detroit get the best.”
What does the mayor mean by “best”? Duggan stated, “The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are 95% effective if you get two shots. Johnson & Johnson is one shot, which is nicer, but it’s about 67% effective.”
Actually, in the United States arm of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) clinical trial, the vaccine’s ability to prevent moderate to severe infection was 72 percent and it is 85 percent effective at preventing severe disease.In addition, the J&J vaccine has been shown to be effective against the new, more contagious COVID-19 variants that are now spreading across the country. And it is likely that many citizens would prefer the convenience of getting a one-and-done J&J shot as opposed to waiting nearly a month to get a second Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech shot.
Author(s): Ronald Bailey
Publication Date: 5 March 2021
Publication Site: Reason
Excerpt:
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Saturday authorized use of the J&J vaccine. The drug company had made nearly four million doses for initial shipment. The administration said it expected about 20 million doses to be delivered by the end of March.
Distribution will be uneven early on as the company increases production, it said, meaning the bulk of the additional 16 million doses will arrive later in the month.
“We’re getting these doses out the door as soon as they’re available to ensure vaccines get into arms as quickly as possible,” a senior Biden administration official said Sunday.
Author(s): Peter Loftus and Ken Thomas
Publication Date: 1 March 2021
Publication Site: Wall Street Journal
Excerpt:
The FDA’s analysis found that, in the U.S., the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was 72% effective at preventing all COVID-19 and 86% effective at preventing severe cases of the disease. While there is still a chance a vaccinated person could get sick, this suggests they would be much less likely to need hospitalization or to die from COVID-19.
A similar trial in South Africa, where a new, more contagious variant is dominant, produced similar results. Researchers found the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be slightly less effective at preventing all illness there – 64% overall – but was still 82% effective at preventing severe disease. The FDA report also indicates that the vaccine protects against other variants from Britain and Brazil too.
Author(s): Maureen Ferran
Publication Date: 27 February 2021
Publication Site: The Conversation
Link: https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/02/08/1017621/why-arent-kids-getting-vaccinated/
Excerpt:
While much of the world is engaged in a frantic scramble to get vaccinated against covid-19, there’s one group noticeably absent from the queues of people at vaccine clinics: children.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is still approved for use only in those aged 16 years or older, and the Moderna vaccine is only for adults. Both are now in trials for younger age groups, and results are expected by the summer. The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are also due to start trials in children soon. But in a world where most vaccines are given to children under two, why is it that during a global pandemic, children are being left behind? And what does it mean for how the pandemic will unfold in adults?
One reason children are not yet priorities for vaccination is that they are much less affected by SARS-CoV-2 infection than adults. Children make up nearly 13% of all cases reported in the United States so far, but less than 3% of all reported hospitalizations and less than 0.21% of all covid-19 deaths. When they have symptoms, they are similar to adults’—cough, fever, sore throat, and runny nose—but less severe.
Author(s): Bianca Nogrady
Publication Date: 8 February 2021
Publication Site: MIT Tech Review
Excerpt:
When the U.S. government awarded over $10 billion in contracts and advance- purchase commitments to drug companies working on COVID-19 vaccine and treatments, it did not require the recipients of government money to agree to offer their products at fair prices or share intellectual property rights to enable faster production.
Now, two of the companies awarded those contracts—Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson—are trying to prevent shareholders from voting on resolutions to require the companies to disclose information about the impact of government funding on vaccine access.
Author: Julia Rock
Publication Date: 1 February 2021
Publication Site: Newsweek