New vaccine candidates may increase supply options

New vaccine candidates may increase supply options

 

While the US has already authorized two vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, there is hope that soon other candidates will be joining them.   On Thursday, Johnson & Johnson officially submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration for an emergency use authorization of its Covid-19 vaccine. If granted, it would be the third vaccine available for use.   According to the company, it's 66% effective in preventing moderate and severe disease, and is 85% effective overall at preventing hospitalization and 100% at preventing death in all regions where it was tested. The single shot vaccine has also shown to be effective in areas where variants have been actively circulating: 72% in the US, 66% in Latin America and 57% in South Africa.   There’s also been a lot of anticipation over the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.  Last Tuesday, early data released from trials in Britain, South Africa and Brazil indicated it's about 67% effective at preventing symptomatic infection two weeks after two doses.   But over the weekend, researchers from South Africa's University of Witwatersrand released early results that found the vaccine provided only "minimal protection" against mild and moderate Covid-19 from the variant first identified in South Africa. Both studies still need to be peer reviewed, but it was enough to give South African health officials some pause, and scale back their massive rollout of a million doses and assess the impact of the vaccine on a group of 100,000 people first.