Gerald Sastra/The Cougar
It’s Johnson & Johnson’s turn to take the stage with their vaccine receiving an emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Feb. 27.
Like the other vaccines given an EUA, the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine isn’t approved by the FDA. However, the authorization allows distribution due to public health emergencies after having met strict requirements and review.
This vaccine is different from Pfizer and Moderna regarding the type of vaccine it is and how it is administered to patients.
The Janssen vaccine is single-dose, meaning that all recipients will only need to get the vaccine once for it to be effective.
The vaccine reportedly has a 66 percent efficacy rate, shadowed by the 95 percent efficacy of both the mRNA Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Time in between vaccination and exposure to the virus does affect efficacy, increasing by more than 10 percent over a 10-day period.
The Janssen vaccine is different from the other approved vaccines in that it’s a viral vector vaccine.
The way that it works is a harmless virus is given to the recipient by shot, this virus will use our cells to make harmless versions of what causes coronavirus.
After it produces it, our cells will display this piece – the spike protein – and it triggers an immune response.
In turn, this will teach our body to recognize this spike protein and attack it without having to actually contract the coronavirus and risk severe consequences of the illness.
Symptoms after getting the vaccine are similar to the other two vaccines, potentially causing pain, swelling, headaches and fatigue.
The vaccine, however, doesn’t have any data determining how long its protection against coronavirus will last. There also isn’t data showing it prevents transmission from person to person.
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