Recently, Johnson and Johnson has announced that the Jansen coronavirus vaccine trials is sixty-six percent effective in the prevention of moderate to severe infection after twenty-eight days of getting the shot. Additionally, data from Phase III also shows that the vaccine is overall eighty-five percent effective in the complete prevention of the infection.
Even though a number of vaccines have already been approved and are currently being administered to people, the results from the Jansen vaccine trials are important. Not only will this new vaccination help in speeding up the vaccine distribution process but also in bringing down the number of serious infections.
This, in turn, will lower the burden of accomodating severe infections on hospitals and coronavirus facility centers. Secondly, it should also be noted that unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the Jansen vaccine only requires a single dosage.
The distribution of this vaccine will, therefore, take comparatively less time with fewer logistical and storage issues as well. According to the World Health Organization, single-dosage vaccines are ideal especially during pandemics as they reduce the number of difficulties when it comes to administering the vaccine.
Distributing vaccinations that require two doses is difficult as storage, transport, and data compilation on round one and two is hard to manage. With the Jansen vaccine, nearly all of these problems will be resolved as people will be vaccinated in a single visit.
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Since the vaccine can remain stable for three months to two years under certain temperature requirements, the transport and storage issues can also be controlled.
The Global Head at Janssen Research & Development, Dr. Mathai Mammen explains that with fewer complexities, faster onset of protection, and prevention of hospitalizations due to severity of infection, the vaccine can indeed help in increasing the speed of vaccine rollout.
Consequently, the potential chances of ending the pandemic this year will also increase. Another important aspect of the Janse vaccine is that its final phase of the clinical trial included over 43,783 foreign participants from South Africa, the US, and Latin America.
The vaccine was found to be effective in all participants including those from South Africa. This is important as there are rising concerns regarding new emerging strains of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, specifically the strain coming from South Africa and it is spreading more than other variants of the virus around the world.
In case other vaccines do not provide sufficient protection against the new strains, the Jansen vaccination can help prevent it.
In the coming weeks, Johnson and Johson plan on filing for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration as well as submitting the data from the clinical trials on the Jansen vaccine for peer-review.
There are high chances that the vaccine will get approval. Soon after, the company will also begin distributions and shipments, making the vaccinations available to multiple countries soon. Until then, people are advised to get the vaccinations which have already been approved and are available.