J&J Vaccine Highly Effective Against Delta Variant in South African Trial .Booster not needed

[Cetacea]

Johnson & Johnson ’s Covid-19 vaccine is highly effective in preventing severe disease and death from the Delta variant, according to data released Friday from a clinical trial in South Africa.

The results from the trial of nearly 480,000 healthcare workers mark the first real world test of J&J’s single-dose vaccine against the Delta variant and support a small laboratory study the company released last month showing the single-dose vaccine offers good protection against the highly contagious strain.

The South African study, known as Sisonke, found that the J&J vaccine has an efficacy of up to 71% against hospitalization from the Delta variant, 67% against hospitalization from the Beta variant and up to 96% against death, according to a presentation of the results Friday. The data hasn’t yet been peer reviewed or published in a scientific journal.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/j-j-vaccine-highly-effective-against-delta-variant-in-south-african-trial-11628292645

[Pobeka]

1. "up to". Means any value from 0 to 71 % for Delta.

Seems like there is always a statement qualifier with J&J.

[Cetacea]

4. They did longer trials and in more countries early on than the big two

True, though.

[Moosepoop]

5. The qualifier seems to be time.

The "up to 71%" is for preventing hospitalization from Delta, and "up to 96%" in preventing death from it.

The longer you have the vaccine, the better it gets at protecting from Delta (and the others).
It "matures and improves" over time.
It's really good at the 29 day mark, but even better at the 8 month mark. That's good news -- it doesn't weaken in that time frame, it strengthens instead.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-02/j-j-covid-shot-neutralizes-delta-variant-is-durable-over-time

https://www.jnj.com/positive-new-data-for-johnson-johnson-single-shot-covid-19-vaccine-on-activity-against-delta-variant-and-long-lasting-durability-of-response

A single dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine generated neutralizing antibodies against a range of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern, which increased over time (the average neutralizing titer at eight months exceeded that average at 29 days), including against the increasingly prevalent and more transmissible Delta (B.1.617.2) variant, the partially neutralization-resistant Beta (B.1.351), the Gamma (P.1) variants and others, including the Alpha (B.1.1.7), Epsilon (B.1.429), Kappa (B.1.617.1) and D614G variants, as well as the original SARS-CoV-2 strain (WA1/2020).

[Moosepoop]

2. Welcome news!

I got the J&J shot, so it's good to see positive information on how it works against Delta. Thanks for posting this!

[MontanaMama]

3. I think this is good news.

I hope it is. I got the J&J because it was offered to me before I was eligible to schedule either Pfizer or Moderna. I’ve felt insecure about it off and on because of the bad press.

[Moosepoop]

6. It is! See post #5

Also, the latest study was done exclusively using healthcare workers who -- though presumably masked up as well as vaccinated -- were most likely exposed to a great deal more of the virus than those in other walks of life. If the J&J vaccine works that well in people who might have received higher viral loads than most, I'm pretty happy with my choice in having gotten it.

Of course, I'm just speculating about the amount of exposure and viral loads involved. But I think it's a fairly safe conclusion.

[SYFROYH]

7. Are we permitted to get the JJ shot if we have either Moderna or Pfizer shots?

Asking for a friend.

[Cetacea]

8. Good question

I don't know.

[LisaL]

10. Right now we are not officially permitted to have boosters.

NT

[LisaL]

9. 71% effective against hospitalization is not actually good.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are supposedly in the 90% range against hospitalization.