THREE PLAYERS IN THE HUB
J&J vax makes it to 2 hospitals, supply to quickly expand
Doses of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine made it to two Boston hospitals a mere two days after FDA authorization, and a newly announced partnership with Merck will ramp up supply even further.
Both Boston Medical Center and Tufts Medical Center each received shipments of 2,000 doses of the single-shot vaccine on Tuesday, according to the hospitals. Those doses will be administered later this week.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine operates on an adenovirus platform that differs from Moderna’s and Pfizer’s two-dose mRNA platform. It was granted emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday. The J&J dose uses a harmless cold virus to deliver a gene to produce the coronavirus spike proteins that allow the immune system to go to work.
Patients who sign up for vaccination at Tufts won’t know which shot they will get until they arrive and will not be able to choose which one they want, said spokesman Jeremy Lechan.
If a patient does not want the vaccine they are offered, they can cancel their appointment and reschedule, according to Tufts. Staff will be on site to answer questions about the different vaccines.
With three vaccines now available in the United States — Moderna, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson — state guidance says, “Recipients will receive the vaccine offered to them when they attend a vaccination clinic. Both vaccines are highly effective and safe.”
Other hospital systems that have not yet received the J&J doses stand at the ready.
A statement from Mass General Brigham said, “We remain committed to deliver every vaccine that we are allocated, and we expect that we will receive Johnson & Johnson doses to administer later this week.”
As shipments continue to go out to states, drug maker Merck & Co. will help produce rival Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in an effort to expand supply more quickly, the White House said Tuesday.
Officials have said J&J faced unexpected production issues with its vaccine and produced only 3.9 million doses ahead of its receiving emergency use authorization. The company says it is on pace to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June.
It was not immediately clear when the effect of Merck’s assistance would be reflected in supply.
While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine’s 66% efficacy is less than the 94-95% efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer shots, clinical trials for each were conducted differently and therefore yielded different results.
The J&J vaccine is 85% effective in preventing the most severe COVID, and the nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, urged Americans to take any vaccine offered to them.
“All three of them are really quite good, and people should take the one that’s most available to them. If you go to a place and you have J&J, and that’s the one that’s available now, I would take it,” Fauci said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”