Four million doses of the third COVID-19 vaccine will be delivered across the US as early as Tuesday, reported AFP quoting a senior administration official. The US, on Saturday, approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use.
It comes after President Joe Biden pledged to battle the deadly virus that has killed more than 500,000 Americans.
J&J is a single-shot vaccine and according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), it is highly effective in preventing severe COVID-19, including against newer variants.
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“Starting tonight, 3.9 million doses of J&J will be distributed across all channels — states, tribes, territories, and pharmacies and community health centrs. eThose J&J doses will be delivered as early as this Tuesday morning,” the administration official said Sunday on a call with reporters.
J&J is planning to deliver approximately 16 million additional doses by March end. It is the third to be approved in the United States after Pfizer and Moderna, which were provisionally approved in December.
According to AFP, over 65 million people in America have so far received at least one shot of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines. But, the J&J vaccine requires just one dose, and is stored at fridge temperatures, offering logistical and practical advantages.
The J&J shot appears less protective than Pfizer and Moderna’s two-shot regimens, which both have an efficacy of around 95% against all forms of COVID-19 from the classic coronavirus strain.
In large clinical trials, the J&J vaccine’s efficacy against severe disease was 85.9% in the United States, 81.7% in South Africa, and 87.6% in Brazil.
All three vaccines have been shown to fully protect against hospitalizations and death, however.
