New data suggests that the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson may work as well as the mRNA-based vaccines, the New York Times reports.
The US Food and Drug Administration authorized the J&J vaccine about a year ago, after the company reported the one-dose vaccine had a 66 percent overall efficacy and 85 percent efficacy in preventing severe disease. Subsequent analyses, however, suggested that the vaccine might be less effective against emerging viral variants like Delta and Lambda than the vaccines from Moderna or Pfizer and BioNTech.
But the Times now says that new data beginning from last summer indicate that all three vaccines are performing similarly. Data collected by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, it adds, indicates that unvaccinated individuals were 3.2 times as likely to have COVID-19 as those who received one dose of J&J vaccine, and 2.8 times as likely as those who received two Moderna doses ad 2.4 times as likely as those who received two Pfizer-BioNTech doses. Such findings have led some researchers to wonder whether the J&J vaccine leads to the production of more durable antibodies, the Times says.
However, it notes that not all experts are convinced, and one suggests it could be due the breakthrough infections some recipients had.