Overview

In a piece of great news for all the Indians, Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine has been given emergency use approval (EUA) in India. The development was confirmed by the Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare recently.

There are plenty of reasons for it being great news for a country as populated as India because apart from the shortage of ‘made in India’ vaccines, there have been plenty of misconceptions pretty prevalent across the states.

Moreover, the cases of the Delta variant of Coronavirus have seen a rapid surge in the past few weeks.

Now, the addition of Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccine has expanded India’s EUA vaccine tally to five, making the vaccine availability for people even easier. This holds great significance looking at the surge in the cases of mutated strains of the virus.

Other EUA vaccines in India

Johnson and Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is the latest inclusion in the list of already approved vaccines. Here is the list:

• Covishield – Developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca
• Covaxin – Bharat Biotech
• Sputnik V – Russia
• Moderna – The United States

As per the latest update, over 51.9 crore vaccine doses have been administered, while over 11.5 crore people have been fully vaccinated, which is about 8.5% of the country’s total population.

Well, the central and state governments and health authorities have done a great job in inculcating so many people, there are still plenty of people who have not received a single dose either due to shortage or vaccine-hesitancy.

How is J & J’s vaccine different from others?

Being the only single-shot vaccine across the world, Johnson and Johnson’s COVID vaccine is being looked at as a potential game-changer. The clinical trials have proven that J & J’s vaccine provides a strong immunity against coronavirus in most inoculated people. This vaccine has played a pivotal role in developing a single-dose trend across the world. Earlier, other US-manufactured vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna showed a weaker immune response after a single dose.

Difference between single-dose and double-dose vaccines

Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine is a viral vector vaccine. In viral vector vaccines, the researchers use a different virus to produce antibodies that fight deadly pathogens. The researchers modify a different virus, that is called a vector, to generate an immune response against the deadly pathogen.

To develop the vaccine against COVID-19, J & J’s team took a common cold virus, known as adenovirus, which on being injected into someone’s body, gets attached to the cells responsible for reading the genetic instructions required to produce the COVID-19 spike protein. As soon as the spike protein gets detected in the body, the immune system starters producing antibodies to fight it.

Pfizer and Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines have been developed using Messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, which generate an immune response in the body by activating the cells responsible for fighting the deadly pathogens. These types of vaccines trigger the cells to produce a protein that leads to an immune response in the body. This process produces antibodies required to fight deadly COVID-19.

How effective is J & J’s COVID-19 vaccine?

The COVID-19 branch of J & J’s received EUA for their vaccine in the United States back in February 2021.

Before giving the green signal, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) analysed the results of the clinical trials involving over 40,000 people and concluded that it could be effective in every case of COVID-19, be it mild or critical. It was found out that the vaccine was effective in 72% of cases in terms of preventing the COVID-19 virus and 86% effective in preventing serious illness due to the disease.

Similar to most of the available vaccines, J & J’s COVID-19 vaccine also doesn’t promise that the inoculated person would not get infected with the virus but it claims that the person would be less likely to develop a severe infection or require hospitalisation.

Duration of Protection

There is no evidence to support a specific time duration of protection against COVID-19 after taking the vaccine but the research surely has proved that it does shield you against the virus.

There have been reports claiming that the antibody level was stable and increasing even 71 days after taking the vaccine. 

There have been speculations that despite J & J’s COVID-19 vaccine not requiring a second dose as of now, it may be required in the days to come.

Takeaway

The arrival of the COVID-19 vaccine of Johnson and Johnson is great news in every aspect for the Indians, as it would not only cut down the shortage of vaccines but will also help people in getting fully vaccinated in a single shot. Still, people have to be a little more cautious in terms of how they conduct themselves in a bid to prevent the third COVID-19 wave in India.

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