A medical professional giving a vaccine shot.Photo: Getty
The FDA went through two studies —one from Johnson & Johnson, which has beentesting the effectiveness of a second dose of their vaccineandanother that looked atfollowing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with a booster shot of Pfizer or Moderna, which are mRNA vaccines that use a different delivery system to create antibodies that protect against COVID-19.
While a second dose of Johnson & Johnsondid improve the immune responseamong people who received the vaccine, the other study, which has not yet been published, found that a booster shot of Moderna led to the biggest increase in antibodies, a 76-fold improvement. The Pfizer vaccine added a 35-fold boost in antibodies, and a second Johnson & Johnson dose just 4-fold.
The researchers, from the National Institutes of Health, said though that there are limitations to their study — it was small and the follow-up period was short, plus they did not look at whether any of the participants got infected during the study.
An expert advisory panel will meet on Friday to discuss the data and determine if they will recommend a booster shot of any kind for Johnson & Johnson recipients, and will also go over a request from Moderna to approve third doses of their vaccine. The FDA and Centers for Disease Control havealready approved a booster shot for Pfizer recipientsover 65 years old, those who are immunocompromised and people with high-risk jobs.
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Current data shows that the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 56% effective in preventing moderate or severe COVID-19 illness, compared to Pfizer or Moderna’s vaccines, which are more than 90% effective. A second dose of Johnson & Johnson brings the vaccine up to 75% effectiveness against any illness and 100% effective against severe disease.
As of Oct. 14, just over half of Americans, 56.6%, are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and 65.6% have received at least one dose. Of the Americans eligible to get vaccinated, those aged 12 and up, 66.2% are fully vaccinated and 76.7% have received at least one dose.
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source: people.com
