New vax try would need just 1 shot

With the hopes of creating an effective vaccine against coronavirus with just one innoculation, American company Johnson & Johnson has launched one of the world’s largest late-stage studies to the fight to beat the global pandemic.

The study will enlist 60,000 volunteers in the U.S., as well as South Africa, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Peru, the company announced Wednesday.

While the other vaccines currently in latestage testing in the U.S. — including those by Moderna and Pfizer — plan to require two shots to effectively guard against the virus, Johnson & Johnson’s, which is modeled on the company’s Ebola vaccine, would require just one.

The company’s chief scientific officer, Dr. Paul Stoffels, told reporters that the study’s size means results could be ready as soon as early next year.

President Trump is pushing for a faster timeline, which many experts say is risky and may not allow for adequate testing. On Wednesday he tweeted a link to news about the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine study and said the Food and Drug Administration “must move quickly!”

“We want to do everything we can without sacrificing safety or efficacy — we’re not going to do that — to make sure that we end up with vaccines that are going to save lives,” Dr. Francis Collins, who directs the National Institutes of Health, told reporters.

Final-stage testing of one experimental vaccine, made by AstraZeneca and Oxford University, remains on hold in the U.S. as officials examine whether it poses a safety risk.

More than 200,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 so far this year, and in many states, infections still are climbing. The U.S. is confirming an average of 41,968 new daily cases, up 13% compared with the average two weeks ago.