Trial shows J&J jab 66% effective

A VACCINE from Johnson & Johnson which could be delivered to the UK in the second half of this year is 66% effective against Covid-19, trial results show.

The single-shot vaccine, which has been developed by J&J pharmaceutical arm Janssen, is 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe Covid-19 28 days after vaccination.

The firm said the jab was 85% effective in preventing severe disease “and demonstrated complete protection against Covid19-related hospitalisation and death as of day 28”.

This means that one month after vaccination, no one who received the vaccine was admitted to hospital or died, regardless of which strain of coronavirus they were exposed to.

Overall, the jab worked across multiple variants of coronavirus, including the South African variant which has been worrying scientists.

The new vaccine was tested in a clinical trial involving 43,783 people, during which time 468 Covid-19 cases were recorded.

The level of protection against moderate to severe Covid-19 infection was found to be 72% in the United States arm of the trial, 66% in the Latin American arm and 57% in the South African arm, where a mutant strain of the virus has been dominating.

The overall efficacy from these trials combined was 66%.

The UK has ordered 30 million doses of the vaccine, with the option of 22 million more, with deliveries expected in the second half of this year if the jab is approved.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock tweeted: “This is yet more good news from Janssen on vaccines. If this jab is approved this could significantly bolster our vaccination programme, especially as a single-dose vaccine.

“Once the full data has been submitted to the Medicines & Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, they will consider the evidence to determine whether the vaccine meets robust standards of safety, effectiveness & quality. “We’re rolling-out vaccines as quickly as possible across the UK, with more than 7.4 million people given their first dose so far.”

The J&J development came on the day it was announced that more than 900 people died with coronavirus on average every day in the UK in the first two weeks of 2021.

The last time the UK saw a 15-day period that was so deadly was in the last half of April 2020, and the number is likely to increase as more deaths are registered.

The findings coincide with the first anniversary of the UK’S earliest known death involving Covid-19, which took place on January 30, 2020.

One year on, the UK’S Covid-19 full death toll, including all mentions of coronavirus on death certificates, has passed 120,000.