Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine: FDA approves single-shot jab

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image caption The US is the first country to approve the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

US regulators have formally approved the single-shot Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, the third jab to be authorised in the country.

The vaccine is set to be a cost-effective alternative to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and can be stored in a refrigerator instead of a freezer.

Trials found it prevented serious illness but was 66% effective overall when moderate cases were included.

The US is the first country in the world to approve the vaccine.

The company has agreed to provide the US with 100 million doses by the end of June. The UK, EU and Canada have also ordered doses, and 500 million doses have also been ordered through the Covax scheme to supply poorer nations.

The authorisation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) came after an external committee of experts unanimously backed the vaccine on Friday.

Results from trials conducted in the US, South Africa and Brazil showed it was more than 85% effective at preventing serious illness, and 66% effective overall when moderate cases were included.

Notably, there were no deaths among participants who had received the vaccine and no hospital admissions after 28 days post-vaccine.

Overall protection was lower in South Africa and Brazil, where virus variants have become dominant, but defence against severe or critical illness was "similarly high".

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South Africa began administering the Johnson & Johnson jab to healthcare workers earlier this month after early trials suggested the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine offered "minimal protection" against mild disease from the variant dominant in large parts of the country.

Johnson & Johnson says it plans to deliver 20 million doses in total by late March.

Because the vaccine will require fewer doses than its two-shot Pfizer and Moderna counterparts, it will also require fewer vaccine appointments and medical staff.

Who else has ordered the Johnson & Johnson jab?

  • UK - 30 million doses
  • EU - 200 million doses
  • Canada - 38 million doses
  • Covax nations - 500 million doses

Global vaccine rollout

No vaccine data available. In some cases there may be a delay between announcements of vaccine programmes getting underway and data on doses delivered becoming available.

Source: Our World in Data, ONS, gov.uk dashboard

What is the situation in the US?

About 72.8 million Americans have already been vaccinated and about 1.3 million doses are being administered across the country each day. President Joe Biden has pledged to administer 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office.

More than 508,000 people in the US have died of Covid but new cases, hospitalisations and deaths have all been on the decline over the past few weeks.

Top public health experts, however, continue to warn that mutations of the virus can still threaten progress.

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