5 Things To Know About The Johnson & Johnson Coronavirus Vaccine

ACROSS AMERICA — The effort to vaccinate Americans and better protect them from the coronavirus has taken another step forward with the approval of the vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson and the development that its competitor, Merck, will help with production.

The third vaccine approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the first that requires one dose. The vaccines that have already been distributed to some 100 million Americans from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna both require two shots weeks apart.

That might be the most apparent benefit the J&J vaccine offers, but just how soon its rollout will help the American vaccination process has yet to be seen. Here are five things to know about America’s third vaccine option:

1. The Distribution Plan Is Ambitious

Doses will be given quite quickly, J&J officials have said. Shots are expected to begin this week, as vials of the vaccine began distribution to states Monday.

“We think, literally, within the next 24 to 48 hours, Americans should start receiving shots in arms,” New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky said Monday on NBC’s “Today.”

About 3.9 million doses of the vaccine will be distributed to states, tribes, territories, pharmacies and community health centers this week, an official with the Biden administration told The Associated Press. Some were delivered as early as Tuesday morning, the official said.

The company already said 20 million doses were expected to be available by the end of March and 100 million by the summer — before the Biden administration on Tuesday said the Defense Production Act would be invoked so drugmaker Merck, a J&J rival, will help with the vaccine's production.

The ramped-up effort will lead to vaccines being available to every American adult by the end of May, President Joe Biden said. That’s two months sooner than Biden had said when he took office in January.

2. How This Vaccine Compares To Others

It shouldn’t matter which vaccine is taken, experts have said.

Dr. Ben Singer, a pulmonary and critical care professor at Northwestern University, said people should not be concerned over receiving one vaccine versus another.

“The best vaccine is the one that you can get, as soon as you can,” Singer, who treats coronavirus patients at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, told Patch.

All three have shown to be extremely effective at preventing severe cases of COVID-19, Singer said.

Acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock agrees, telling NBC News “people should take the vaccine they are able to access.”

“All these vaccines meet our standards for effectiveness,” she said.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said he would take the vaccine himself if that were the one offered to him.

“If I would go to a place where they had J&J, I would have no hesitancy whatsoever to take it,” Fauci said while on NBC News’ “Meet The Press” this past weekend.

The differences between the vaccines are mainly for those administering, Singer said.

"As long as the vaccinating facility is able to keep track of all that, from an individual's standpoint I think it should be pretty straightforward, and they shouldn't have to be overly concerned with getting one versus the other, just following the directions," he said.

Related On Patch: The Best COVID-19 Vaccine Is The One You Can Get, Doctor Says

3. There’s Little Concern Over Lower Efficacy

Clinical trials did show the J&J vaccine as being less effective against the virus compared with the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. It has shown a 72 percent efficacy rate among trial participants in the U.S., but is about 85 percent effective against the most severe forms of the virus, CNN reported. Both Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna touted efficacy rates at or near 95 percent.

When it comes to the South Africa coronavirus variant that is believed to be more contagious, J&J showed a 64 percent effective rate.

The J&J vaccine’s ability to reach more people has health professionals less concerned about the lower efficacy rates.

“It’s not just how effective a vaccine is. It’s how many people get it,” Dr. David Priest, an infectious disease specialist at Novant Health in Charlotte, North Carolina told WCNC, comparing it to the annual flu shot.

“The flu vaccine every year, maybe, is 40 percent effective, but if every eligible person got it, we’d have almost no flu mortality,” he said.

4. Can People Choose Which Vaccine They Get?

Likely, no, Singer said. The Northwestern doctor urges people to get any vaccine as soon as they can.

“I don’t think it makes a lot of sense to try to shop around for the vaccine, because remember: The efficacy of not getting the vaccine is zero,” he said. “So if you wait and you get COVID, that means you didn’t receive the benefit of whatever vaccine you would have been able to get.”

5. This Could Significantly Speed Up Immunizations

Not only does the J&J vaccine require only one dose instead of two, it also does not require storage in temperatures as low as the other vaccines do.

It does not need to be kept in a freezer and can be stored at refrigerated temperatures, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN.

“So it is easy to transport and store and allows for expanded availability in most community settings and mobile sites as supply scales up,” Walensky said.

But not having to come back for a second dose remains the primary way this will help.

"You don't have to come back for the second one; and based on the way the trial looks, people achieve the effective immunity a few weeks after that first dose, so it does speed up the timeline quite a bit, so it's just more attractive from a logistics standpoint to have a one-shot system," Singer said.

Patch Editor Jonah Meadows contributed reporting.