Johnson & Johnson vaccine 66% effective in moderate to severe COVID-19 cases

Johnson & Johnson’s long-awaited vaccine appears to protect against the coronavirus with just one shot, though results showed it is not as effective as other vaccines on offer that are administered via two injections.

J&J said the single-shot vaccine was 66% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19, and much more protective - 85% - against the most serious variations.

The trials were conducted in eight countries.

The vaccine worked better in the United States, where it was 72% effective against moderate to severe COVID-19, compared to 57% in South Africa, where it was up against an easier-to-spread mutated virus.

“Gambling on one dose was certainly worthwhile,” Dr. Mathai Mammen, global research chief for J&J’s Janssen Pharmaceutical unit, told The Associated Press.

EMA: Deaths not linked to BioNTech-Pfizer jab

The BioNTech-Pfizer coronavirus shot shows no link to reported post-vaccination deaths and no new side effects, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) said.

The Amsterdam-based agency said it had examined reports that dozens of mainly elderly people in Norway and other European countries had died after they received a first shot of the vaccine, known as Comirnaty.

The EMA said it had looked at the deaths and “concluded that the data did not show a link to vaccination with Comirnaty and the cases do not raise a safety concern.”

Providing its first safety update since the EU embarked on its vaccination campaign in December, the watchdog said data appeared to be “consistent with the known safety profile of the vaccine, and no new side effects were identified.”

The reports of some severe allergic reactions did not go beyond what had already been found about this “known side effect”, the EMA said.

“The benefits of Comirnaty in preventing COVID-19 continue to outweigh any risks, and there are no recommended changes regarding the use of the vaccine,” it added.

Meanwhile, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has called for “plausible answers” over a delay in the number of shots the bloc receives from British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca.