Johnson & Johnson vaccine protects against Delta variant, company announces

Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine triggers strong protection against the Delta variant, which is more contagious and spreading quickly across the globe, the company announced Thursday.

“We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against COVID-19 and elicits neutralizing activity against the Delta variant. This adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine’s ability to protect against multiple variants of concern,” said Dr. Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson.

Data showed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine demonstrated “strong, persistent activity” against the Delta variant and other coronavirus variants, according to the announcement.

“Today’s newly announced studies reinforce the ability of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to help protect the health of people globally,” Stoffels said.

The Johnson & Johnson immune response to the Delta variant was even stronger than the response to the South African variant, according to J&J.

In addition to the news about Delta variant protection, Johnson & Johnson also announced that the immune response from the shot lasted through eight months, providing a look into the nagging question of how long vaccine immunity will last before a booster shot is needed.

“Current data for the eight months studied so far show that the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine generates a strong neutralizing antibody response that does not wane; rather, we observe an improvement over time,” said Dr. Mathai Mammen, global head of Janssen Research & Development.

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine operates on an adenovirus platform which is different than the mRNA platforms of Pfizer and Moderna coronavirus vaccines.

However with Thursday’s news out of J&J, all three vaccines have now shown to be protective against the Delta variant, which originated in India and is now in several countries including the United States.

Health experts in the United States have said fully vaccinated people should not harbor too much concern over the Delta variant, however unvaccinated individuals are still vulnerable to variants.

The World Health Organization has become increasingly concerned about variants, with Dr. Mariangela Simao, WHO assistant director-general for access to medicines and health products, saying, “People need to continue to use masks consistently, be in ventilated spaces, hand hygiene … . This still continues to be extremely important, even if you’re vaccinated when you have a community transmission ongoing.”

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3yihH2u