Johnson and Johnson Begin Vaccine Distribution After Receiving FDA Emergency Authorization
(CBS DETROIT)- After receiving emergency authorization from the FDA over the weekend Johnson and Johnson started rolling out their one dose vaccines on Monday.
As hospitals in Michigan await the distribution of the J & J vaccine, doctors say the effectiveness may be less than the current vaccines, but it's still effective in preventing hospitalizations and deaths says Dr. Matthew Sims, Director of Infectious Disease Research at Beaumont Health.
"It did seem to completely prevent people from really getting so sick that they died from the virus. It is an effective vaccine even though it's not as strong as the Moderna or Pfizer."
Dr. Sims says studies show the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is about 75% effective compared to the 95% effectiveness in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but says this should not discourage anyone from receiving the shots when they are available.
"I can get Johnson and Johnson now or I can wait a year to get Pfizer that's probably not a reasonable choice."
Johnson and Johnson is the 2nd coronavirus vaccine to be manufactured in Michigan, and is being produced at a plant in Grand Rapids. The Pfizer vaccine is produced in Portage.
Officials with Henry Ford Health which participated in a J and J trail says studies show it may protect against a new variant.
"Because they enrolled individuals in South Africa that the vaccine has ethnicity against the strain circulating originally from South Africa but has now spread to several countries and is now here in the United States." Said Dr. Paul Kilgore MD/ Henry Ford Health, Co-Principal Investigators of the J & J trial during a video conversation on Friday.
Health officials expect Michigan will intially receive a little over 80,000 doses of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
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