One and done: Why people are eager for the J&J vaccine
In North Dakota this week, health officials are sending their first Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to pharmacies and urgent care clinics. 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 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.
“This is a potential breakthrough,”
said Dr. Joseph Kanter, the top health official in Louisiana. With its first allotted doses, the state is holding a dozen large Johnson & Johnson vaccination events at civic centers and other public places, modeled after what has worked for flu vaccines.
Judged by how well it prevents severe disease, hospitalization and death, the Johnson & Johnson shot is comparable to those made by Moderna and PfizerBioNTech. 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.
“There are circumstances in which it is going to be a really good option or maybe the best option,” said Dr. Matthew Daley, a senior investigator at Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s Institute for Health Research and a member of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent vaccine advisory committee.
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 from chills or fever, North Carolina’s
health secretary Mandy Cohen said: “There are a lot of folks who are like, ‘I’m much more interested now that you tell me I only have to get a shot one time instead of two.”
“I don’t think it’s an inferior vaccine, and that’s why I’m taking it for myself,” said Cohen, who was scheduled to get the Johnson & Johnson shot Friday.
At small, independent pharmacies, the vaccine has caused a surge of excitement. Steve Hoffart, the owner of Magnolia Pharmacy in Magnolia, Texas, a small town outside of Houston, has received calls and emails from residents anticipating its arrival this week. He said he hopes to hold a Johnson & Johnson event for teachers on March 13. Schools in the area have struggled to find substitute teachers during the pandemic, and a vaccine that does not require a second visit and more time off was a significant development, he said.