One-shot ‘jab and go’ for youngsters off to Ibiza

Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be attractive to young adults who do not want to wait for 12 weeks

A NEW single shot Covid-19 vaccine could be available by July and will be mainly used to target young millennials who might not want to wait three months for a second dose.

Nadhim Zahawi, the vaccines minister, said that UK medical regulators are now formally assessing the safety of the

Janssen vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson. Ministers are hoping that the vaccine can be deployed among those born in the 1990s and around the turn of the century as a ‘jab and go’.

Anyone receiving the AstraZeneca jab, seen as the Government’s rollout workhorse, needs two doses, 12 weeks apart, to be fully inoculated.

The hope is that the Janssen jab will be attractive to young people who will be desperate to start enjoying a summer by the time the rollout reaches them.

Government sources said the first will be administered by July at the earliest, around the time that the youngest adults will be receiving the call for a vaccine. The Government has ordered 30 million

Janssen doses, which use the same technology as the AstraZeneca vaccine. A source said: “It could work really well for the 18 to 29-year-olds. One hit and you are done – and you are off to Ibiza.”

Mr Zahawi told MPs: “Reviews are underway by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to assess the Johnson & Johnson (known by Janssen in Europe) and Novavax vaccines.

“Any vaccines made available will have passed the MHRA’s tests on safety and efficacy. If and when those vaccines are authorised we expect to receive the doses for both vaccines in the second half of this year.”

The Janssen jab was approved in the

US in February and the EU in March after trials found it was 67 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19 and completely effective at preventing hospital admissions and death from the virus.

Janssen Pharmaceuticals is a Belgian subsidiary of pharma giant Johnson & Johnson, so the jab is often referred to by both names. Two Covid-19 vaccines are currently being administered in the UK but several more have been ordered and are yet to be approved.

The Pfizer-BioNTech jab was approved on Dec 8 while the Oxford-AstraZeneca jab started to be administered after approval on Dec 30.

The Moderna vaccine was approved on Jan 7 and is expected to be rolled out this month. The Novavax vaccine is awaiting imminent approval from the MHRA.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “The UK’s vaccination rollout continues at pace, with over 35 million jabs administered so far.

“We are on track to offer a first dose to everyone in the priority groups 1-9 by mid-April and all adults by the end of July. Thanks to the swift and decisive work of our Vaccine Taskforce, the UK moved quickly to secure 30 million doses of Janssen’s vaccine last summer.”

A source added: “We cannot provide details on vaccines which have not yet been authorised by the MHRA.

“We have set out our timelines for the vaccination programme and there is no change to this. We intend to offer a first dose to all over-50s by mid-April and all adults by the end of July.

“Vaccines are being distributed fairly across the UK to make sure the most vulnerable people in society are immunised first. Some parts of the country have made very significant progress and have gone slightly faster than the average. We’re putting more supply into areas that have more to do and the rollout of vaccinations will continue to expand at pace.

“Through the Government’s Vaccines Taskforce, the UK has secured early access to 457million doses of seven of the most promising vaccine candidates.”