UK to get first one-shot jab... and it can beat S Africa strain
BRITAIN received yet another vaccine boost last night as the first one-shot jab was found to work against Covid – even the new South African strain.
The UK has pre-ordered 30million doses of the jab from pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, with an option for 22million more. It means Britain is on course to get its fifth successful vaccine.
In ‘ groundbreaking’ results, the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine was found – during a clinical trial of almost 44,000 people in eight countries – to be 66 per cent effective at preventing illness from Covid.
No one in the trial was taken to hospital or died. Fifteen per cent of those in the trial were in South Africa – the source of a mutant strain feared to evade existing vaccines.
Oxford University professor Kevin Marsh said comparing the 66 per cent effectiveness to other jabs was ‘a mistake’.
He said: ‘ The real headline result is that a single- shot vaccine, capable of easy longterm storage and administration, provided complete protection against hospitalisation and death.’
It is the second vaccine triumph this week, after successful results for the Britishmade jab from Novavax.
Whereas the other vaccines approved in the UK need two doses, batches of the Johnson & Johnson single-shot jab will go much further. The controversies over the timing of second doses are not an issue – and it can be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures for at least three months.
Professor Saul Faust, trial investigator for Johnson & Johnson, said it was ‘an unbelievable result and really groundbreaking.’
Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: ‘This is yet more good news. If this jab is approved, this could significantly bolster our vaccination programme.’ Prime Minister Boris Johnson also tweeted: ‘Very encouraging.’
The new vaccine is similar to Oxford University’s jab in containing the genetic code for part of the virus, which is made harmlessly in the body, so the immune system can recognise it and fight it off.
This genetic code is delivered in a cold virus, while the Oxford vaccine uses a chimpanzee virus.
If the vaccine, developed by a Belgian subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson called Janssen, is approved then deliveries to Britain are expected in the second half of the year.
The EU has up to 400million doses on order and the US has a deal for 100million jabs. Meanwhile, the Novavax vaccine was found to be 60 per cent effective when used in South Africa – further alleviating fears about the new strain.
A clinical trial in the UK involving more than 15,000 people, of whom more than a quarter were over the age of 65, found it to be 89 per cent effective at preventing patients falling ill with Covid.
The Novavax vaccine will be manufactured in Teesside. Former head of the Vaccine Taskforce, Kate Bingham, yesterday described its results as ‘phenomenal’.
‘Bolster our programme’
TACKLING the gargantuan budget black hole left by Covid is an unenviable task for Rishi Sunak.
But the Mail is pleased that the Chancellor is rethinking plans to scrap the stamp duty holiday on properties of up to £500,000.
His decision to cut the levy during the crisis kept the property market buoyant – a huge boost for the economy. Reintroducing it would cause chaos.
More than that, when people buy a home they splash out on decorations, new appliances, soft furnishings and much else – boosting other businesses.
Stamp duty, frankly, is a destructive and gratuitous raid on aspiration. Mr Sunak shouldn’t just extend the holiday – he should be bold and make it permanent.
He must remember the Tory philosophy: To champion growth and low taxation.
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