Although there was a slight drop in potency against the Delta variant, vaccine was more effective against the Delta variant than the Beta variant<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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FRIDAY, July 2, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Johnson & Johnson announced Thursday that its COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the highly contagious Delta variant that brought India to its knees this past spring.<\/p>\n
The finding will no doubt reassure the 11 million Americans who have gotten the J&J shot, as the company also noted the protection lasted eight months after inoculation. Although there was a slight drop in potency against the Delta variant, data from two studies show the J&J vaccine was more effective against the Delta variant than the Beta variant that first surfaced in Africa. Even better, antibodies stimulated by the J&J vaccine grew in strength over time, the company added. <\/p>\n
Both studies, which have been submitted for online publication on the preprint server bioRxiv<\/em>, were small, but the company said it released the results early because of high public interest.<\/p>\n “Today’s newly announced studies reinforce the ability of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to help protect the health of people globally,” Paul Stoffels, M.D., vice chairman of the executive committee and chief scientific officer at Johnson & Johnson, said in a company news release. “We believe that our vaccine offers durable protection against COVID-19 and elicits neutralizing activity against the Delta variant. This adds to the robust body of clinical data supporting our single-shot vaccine’s ability to protect against multiple variants of concern.”<\/p>\n