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Making Antibodies
Got Questions About Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Vaccine? We Have Answers
A medical worker at South Shore University Hospital gets ready to administer the newly available Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Bay Shore, N.Y., Wednesday. Clinical research found it to be 85% effective in preventing severe disease four weeks after vaccination, and it has demonstrated promising indications of protection against a couple of concerning variants of the coronavirus. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
A medical worker at South Shore University Hospital gets ready to administer the newly available Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in Bay Shore, N.Y., Wednesday. Clinical research found it to be 85% effective in preventing severe disease four weeks after vaccination, and it has demonstrated promising indications of protection against a couple of concerning variants of the coronavirus.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
That's welcome news in a country that still faces high levels of circulating virus in most regions, and a demand for vaccine that still far outstrips supply.
The J&J vaccine has some significant advantages, health officials say. Unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, it can be stored for up to three months at regular refrigerator temperatures, so it's easier to distribute to more places. And you're fully vaccinated after just one dose — a welcome convenience for many recipients who dread the two-shot regimen of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
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.
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Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and professor at George Washington University, says that's a big plus for the J&J vaccine.
"If there are individuals who may not like needles, who may have concerns about returning for a second shot, who may not want the inconvenience of scheduling a second appointment, or who may be concerned that there isn't enough supply of the vaccine at the moment for a second shot — for those individuals, that convenience of being done [after one dose], fully vaccinated, is really important," Wen says.
Still, the J&J vaccine is a little different from the others. Here's what you need to know.
How does the Johnson & Johnson vaccine work?
Building Spike Proteins
The mRNA leaves the nucleus, and the cell’s molecules read its sequence and begin assembling spike proteins.
Some of the spike proteins produced by the cell form spikes that migrate to its surface and stick out their tips. The vaccinated cells also break up some of the proteins into fragments, which they present on their surface. These protruding spikes and spike protein fragments can then be recognized by the immune system.
The adenovirus also provokes the immune system by switching on the cell’s alarm systems. The cell sends out warning signals to activate immune cells nearby. By raising this alarm, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine causes the immune system to react more strongly to the spike proteins.
