Johnson & Johnson Single-Dose Vaccine Effective and Safe for COVID-19: What Are Its Side Effects

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said the single-dose vaccine from Johnson & Johnson works safely against COVID-19 cases, including the South Africa and Brazil variants.

Eastern Colorado VA Receives Shipments Of Covid-19 Vaccines
AURORA, CO - DECEMBER 15: (EDITORIAL USE ONLY) Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center investigational pharmacy technician Sara Berech prepares a dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine for a clinical trial on December 15, 2020 in Aurora, Colorado. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be submitted for emergency use by late January and is the only vaccine among leading candidates given as a single dose. Michael Ciaglo/Getty Images

The vaccine was 66.1 percent effective and seemed healthy in avoiding mild to severe illness, FDA said Wednesday in a documented briefing. The shot also showed tantalizing signs of halting the virus's transmission.

Health authorities are now looking forward to introducing a new vaccine to their arsenal for COVID-19. Johnson & Johnson performed safely through various steps and fulfilled the review's recommended success criterion, the FDA said.

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine: Is This Effective?

Health experts agree that individuals should not hold out for the other shots and, if approved and given, should get the J&J vaccine because it offers protection, especially against severe COVID-19 cases.

Results indicate that Johnson & Johnson vaccine could also help minimize the COVID-19 asymptomatic spread. J&J added the vaccine protected the study subjects from getting COVID-19 symptoms.


NBC News said Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine was 64% successful in stopping mild to extreme COVID-19 cases among trial participants in South Africa, where a troubling new variant has swept across the country.

Overall, the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing hospitalization 28 days after vaccination than 85% at 14 days. There were no COVID-19 deaths for people who got the shot rather than a placebo.

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine: How Does It Work?

In collaboration with Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is administered in a single shot. The vaccine only needs simple refrigeration for storage, unlike other vaccines that need supercooling.

Johnson & Johnson uses an inactivated virus called an adenovirus to train the body's immune system to recognize and fend off SARS-CoV-2, the virus that triggers Covid-19.

A particular type of technology is used in the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, using genetic material called messenger RNA, or mRNA.

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine: What Are The Side Effects?

Reuters claimed that three vaccination participants had adverse side effects that were likely to be linked to the vaccine. Still, the FDA said its review did not pose any particular safety issues that would prohibit issuing an emergency permit for use.

According to FDA, the most frequent reactions include pain in injection site pain (48.6 percent), headache (39 percent), nausea (38.2 percent), myalgia (33.2 percent), and fever (9 percent).

The regulator said the vaccine might have caused one case of pericarditis, a heart disease. It claimed that chances of a rare condition, Guillain-Barre Syndrome, were unlikely to be associated with the vaccination. Still, there was inadequate evidence to ascertain whether the vaccine caused these side effects.


Check out more news and information on COVID-19 on Science Times.

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