America Approves Single Dose Covid-19 Vaccine

 United States regulators have finally approved the mass use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the only Covid-19 vaccine so far that only takes one shot per person.

In addition, Johnson & Johnson vaccines can be stored in the refrigerator, not necessarily in the freezer.

Thus, three vaccine brands have been approved for use in the US, including Pfizer and Moderna.

The Johnson & Johnson clinical trial shows projections for severe Covid-19 disease, although if moderate symptoms are counted the efficacy rate drops to 66%.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is made by the Belgian company Janssen.

The company has agreed to supply 100 million doses of vaccine to the US by the end of June. Next week, the Johnson & Johnson vaccination can begin in the US.

Even President Joe Biden responded to this "good news".

"Even though we celebrate this news, I still emphasize to all Americans - to wash their hands regularly, keep their distance, and wear masks," the president said in a statement on Saturday (27/2/2021) local time.

At the start of the pandemic or during the administration of Donald Trump, there has never been a message like this from the president.

"As I have said many times, the situation could worsen again with the spread of new variants, and the current progress could be reversed again," said Biden.

In clinical trials in the US, Brazil, and South Africa, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had an efficacy rate of 85% for preventing severe symptoms, and 66% when patients with moderate symptoms were included.

As a side note, none of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients died of Covid-19 and none were hospitalized within 28 days of the vaccine being injected.

Overall levels of protection decreased slightly in South Africa and Brazil, where the new variant of the coronavirus was the dominant type. However, protection against severe symptoms is just as high.

South Africa started using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on medical personnel earlier this month although there is no official approval there yet. The reason is, the existing vaccine, namely Oxford-AstraZeneca, is considered less effective against mild symptoms caused by the new Covid-19 variant there.

Bahrain also approved the use of the Johnson & Johnson emergency last Thursday.

Because it only takes one dose, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine also takes less manpower and hours of work for mass vaccination.

Apart from America, other major buyers of Johnson & Johnson vaccines are the United Kingdom (30 million doses), the European Union (200 million doses), Canada (38 million doses), and member countries of the multilateral institute that contribute to the Covax vaccine (500 million doses). .