Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Protects from Delta Variants, Company Report

The Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine was effective against highly contagious delta mutants even eight months after vaccination, the company reported Thursday.

The vaccine showed a slight reduction in efficacy against mutants compared to its efficacy against the original virus, the company said. However, this vaccine was more effective against delta mutants than the beta mutants first identified in South Africa. This pattern was also seen with the mRNA vaccine.

Researchers reported that vaccine-stimulated antibodies increased in strength over time.

The results are documented in a news release, the company said both studies were submitted for online publication on Thursday. One of those studies was approved for publication in a scientific journal. Both studies were small, and researchers said they published their results early because of the strong interest of the general public.

Dr. Danbaroch, a virologist at the Beth Israeli Deacones Medical Center in Boston, said: “A lot of false information was so widespread that we decided we needed to put it in the public domain right away.”

The fierce debate about the Delta threat made even immunized people worried about their protection. The first variant identified in India is much more infectious than previous versions of the virus, and its worldwide spread has created new health restrictions from Ireland to Malaysia.

In the United States, this variant accounts for a quarter of new infections. Public health officials say the US-approved vaccine is effective against all existing variants, but the data are primarily based on studies of mRNA vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. I will.

As a result, some people who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine asked, “What about us?”

Frustration was high even before the introduction of the Delta variant. For example, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance that vaccinated people can abandon masks indoors in many situations was primarily based on RNA vaccine data. And J. Report of a cluster of infections among Yankees baseball team players who received & J. Shot did nothing to alleviate the fear that the vaccine might be inferior to the others.

Martha Young, 63, from Mountain View, California, is J. Received & J. Taken on April 9th. It wasn’t her first choice, but it was one that was offered. But since then, she said, “I’m very frustrated by the lack of information.”

She is J. Added by mentioning & J. Vaccine, “I felt like I didn’t count because I wasn’t statistically important because most of us didn’t have to worry about us.”

Some people have been immunized with J. & J. Vaccines complained that they felt fooled by experts who said they were all equally good. “I was surprised to see others making this claim,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida. “I didn’t like it. People don’t want to feel misunderstood.”

However, other experts said in clinical trials, J. He said that the effectiveness of & J should have been revealed. The vaccine was lower than the mRNA vaccine. Florian Kramer, an immunologist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, said:

Part of the difficulty in comparing vaccines is that they have all been tested individually and on different measures of success. The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna trials were designed to aggregate symptomatic infections, but J. & J. The trial evaluated vaccine prophylaxis against moderate to severe infections.

Still, it’s clear that all vaccines are far more effective than scientists initially expected to keep people away from intensive care units and morgues, says an immunologist at Imperial College London. Danny Altmann said.

“It’s like arguing whether you want a Ferrari or a Porsche that runs 150 or 180 mph on a street that can only reach 30 mph,” he said.

Still, there is a difference: J. & J. Vaccines may allow mild to asymptomatic, so-called breakthrough infections (which occur in fully vaccinated people) than mRNA vaccines.

People with asymptomatic infections are very unlikely to spread the virus, but if the virus is detected by regular tests, as in the case of the Yankees cluster, diagnosis can be problematic and quarantined. Virologist John Moore says he needs to get in at Weil Cornell Medicine in New York.

J. & J. Information on the effectiveness of the vaccine The arrival of the vaccine has been delayed. This was due to later deployment and suspension of use due to concerns about rare blood clots. Many medical centers and hospitals were able to provide staff with mRNA vaccines early on and launch studies to evaluate those vaccines.

But J. Blood samples from people vaccinated at & J. Vaccines are a relatively rare product, Dr. Kramer said. “It’s not that no one cares, or that it’s hiding something because the vaccine isn’t good,” he said. “It’s an access issue.”

Due to lack of data, some experts are J. & J. The shot probably worked for the delta variant as well as the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is widely used in Europe. However, the vaccine is J. & J. It is administered twice compared to a single dose of.

“I have never fully understood J. & J. Their technology platforms are very similar in nature and almost indistinguishable from AstraZeneca,” said Dr. Altman. .. “Does it really need to be a double dose vaccine like everything else?”

Single doses provide benefits to those who have restricted access or who do not want double doses for other reasons. J. & J. Vaccines also lasted longer than other vaccines when refrigerated and were a welcome option in the early days of pandemics when vaccines were scarce.

However, after the emergence of variants such as beta and delta that appear to partially evade the immune system, J. Discussion about & J boosters. The recipient has intensified. A single dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was far less effective against mutants than a double dose, and experts were afraid of J. & J. The shots may be similar.

The new study addressed some of those concerns.

Blood antibody levels produced after immunization with Pfizer or Moderna decrease after the first surge, but antibodies (and immune cells) are stimulated by J. & J. The vaccine lasts at high levels. (Other studies have shown that the immune response produced by the mRNA vaccine is likely to last for years.)

Lack of information about J. & J. The vaccine has caused many to speculate that a single dose of mRNA vaccine may need to be supplemented. But at least for now, J. People who received & J. Vaccines shouldn’t need boosters, they legally get boosters “unless you game your system, get the mRNA vaccine by pretending to be vaccine-free and essentially lie” I can not do it. Please do not recommend anyone to do so. “