Johnson & Johnson’s allure
Rollout start shows people seem to like the one-shot deal
In North Dakota this week, health officials are sending their first Johnson & Johnson COVID -19 vaccines to pharmacies and urgent care clinics, where people who don’t necessarily have a regular doctor can get the single jab. In Missouri, doses are going to community health centers and rural hospitals. And in North Carolina, health providers are using it to inoculate meatpacking, farm and grocery workers.
Since Johnson & Johnson revealed data showing that its vaccine, while highly protective, had a slightly lower efficacy rate than the first shots produced by Moderna and Pfizer-biontech, health officials have feared the new shot might be viewed by some Americans as the inferior choice.
But the early days of its rollout suggest something different: Some people are eager to get it because they want the convenience of a single shot. And public health officials are enthusiastic about how much faster they could get a single shot distributed, particularly in vulnerable communities.
Judged by how well it prevents severe disease, hospitalization and death, the Johnson & Johnson shot is comparable to those made by Moderna and Pfizer-biontech. And although it has a lower overall efficacy rate in the U.S. — 72 percent, compared with roughly 95 percent for the others — experts say comparing these numbers is not useful because the companies’ trials were conducted in different places at different times.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine also can be kept at normal refrigeration temperatures for three months — ideal for distribution at nonmedical sites such as stadiums and convention centers.
Only 4 million doses were shipped this week, and the company’s manufacturing lags mean that it will be at least a month before states start receiving significant supplies. Because of that gap, state officials are treating the first wave of doses as a moment to test different ways to deploy them.
Many state health officials said they were focused on getting the vaccine to people who might be harder to reach for a second dose, such as those who are homeless or on the verge of release from prison. In North Carolina, this category includes the mobile agricultural communities in the state with three- or four-week work seasons. Mandy Cohen, the state’s health secretary, said large meatpacking plants such as Smithfield and Tyson Foods were interested in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and had been consulting with her department.
And because the vaccine tends to have fewer side effects than the other options, it’s appealing to people who don’t want to risk missing a day of work to recover, she said.
“I don’t think it’s an inferior vaccine, and that’s why I’m taking it for myself,” said Cohen.
States have been able to customize distribution plans in part because the federal government did not issue prescriptive guidelines for where and who the vaccine should go to.
Although health experts are enthusiastic about the potential public health benefits of the new vaccine, some also fear that the public’s interest will wane once vaccines become less scarce.
At Black churches across the Mid-atlantic this winter, Darrell Gaskin, a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins University and a pastor, and Rupali Limaye, a scientist at the university who studies vaccine hesitancy, have reassured hundreds of pastors and congregation members of African Methodist Episcopal Zion churches in virtual presentations, emphasizing the vaccine’s safety and prevention of severe COVID -19 and death.
Gaskin said it was crucial for officials to emphasize the benefits of the vaccine at the beginning of distribution so people “don’t feel like there’s a luxury vaccine and then the nonluxury vaccine.”