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Johnson & Johnson Krem do Twarzy - Odkryj Tajemnice Zdrowej i Promiennej Skóry
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"I view it as a race against time," Pierre says, based on the data and her own experience with her mom. Pierre scrambled to schedule an immunization appointment for her mother as soon as the older woman became eligible. But before she could get immunized, she was diagnosed with COVID-19.
Any particular safety or efficacy concerns that people with underlying conditions should worry about with the J&J vaccine?
Medical specialists who care for people with diabetes, cancer, coronary artery disease or other conditions that put them at increased risk of severe disease if they get COVID-19 are encouraging their patients to get vaccinated.
How effective is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
When companies report results from clinical trials, they report the "percent effectiveness" of a vaccine. A vaccine that's 90 percent effective at preventing illness doesn't mean 10 percent of people who received it will get sick, rather, it means people who got the shot were 90 percent less likely to get sick, compared with people who received a placebo.
In Johnson & Johnson's trial, researchers looked at different outcomes in different parts of the world. In the United States, for example, the vaccine was found to be 72 percent effective at preventing what the company defined as moderate to severe Covid-19. That was a broad definition, which ranged from a combination of milder symptoms, such as fever and headache, to more severe symptoms, such as shortness of breath and low oxygen levels.
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And it prevented 100 percent of hospitalizations and deaths related to Covid-19. No one who got the Johnson & Johnson shot was hospitalized or died of Covid-19 during the study's follow-up period of 28 days after vaccination.
What's more, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's effectiveness against severe disease was found to increase over time — to more than 90 percent within a month and a half after vaccination.
What all that means in practice is that even if a vaccinated person is infected with the coronavirus, the illness is likely to be one that can be managed at home, experts say. That's true regardless of the variant.
"Even if they get Covid, their symptoms are much more mild than people who got the placebo and got Covid," said the director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic, Dr. Paul Goepfert, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Goepfert was an investigator in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trials.
What are the side effects?
The most common side effects reported in Johnson & Johnson's clinical trials are generally expected after any vaccination. They include pain at the injection site, redness of the skin, muscle pain, headache, fatigue, nausea and fever. While they may be uncomfortable, they actually signal that the immune system is responding to the vaccine.
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No serious or long-term side effects were reported during Johnson & Johnson's clinical trials, but the company is investigating two cases of severe allergic reactions that were reported later. Health care providers are advised to monitor people who have histories of allergic reactions for 30 minutes after vaccination and all other patients for 15 minutes.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, rare cases of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction, occurred at a rate of 4.5 cases per 1 million doses administered of both the Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.
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The guidance for anyone pregnant or breastfeeding is more nuanced: The CDC and groups such as the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say all three vaccines should be made available to those who are pregnant, but they leave the choice about whether to get vaccinated up to each individual. That's because pregnant people were excluded from the initial clinical trials for all three vaccines, so there's no firm direct evidence yet on how the vaccine will perform in this group.
That said, taking into account work with other vaccines and animal data, the CDC says that "based on current knowledge, experts believe that COVID-19 vaccines are unlikely to pose a risk to the pregnant person or fetus." Meanwhile, getting COVID-19 can pose a significant risk: Research from the past year has shown that those who are pregnant are at higher risk of a severe case of the disease if they get infected.
Pfizer has recently started a large trial of its vaccine among those who are pregnant, and J & J says it also has plans for such a trial, so more direct evidence about efficacy in that group is on the way.
Though it's not yet known whether the COVID-19 vaccines will be as effective among patients who are immunocompromised as they are in other people, the vaccines are safe for that group, and "it is recommended that people who are immunocompromised can get this vaccine," says Dr. Kathleen Mullane of the University of Chicago School of Medicine. She's an expert in the treatment of infections in immunocompromised patients — such as organ transplant recipients — and served as an investigator in clinical trials for both the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
Mullane advises that no matter which COVID-19 vaccine an immunocompromised patient signs up for, they should talk to their doctor ahead of time. There's a chance the physician may adjust the patient's usual medication or treatment schedule ahead of the shot in order to boost the vaccine's effectiveness. Your own medical team knows your situation best, and is your best guide in this case, Mullane says.
