It is not yet known when the Janssen vaccine will be administered for the first time. The Netherlands has ordered a total of 11.3 million doses. The vaccine only needs to be given once. The Health Council recommends first giving the vaccine to people over 60 and to medical risk groups. This concerns, for example, people with Down syndrome, with morbid obesity or with neurological disorders that can lead to breathing problems. Once those groups have been vaccinated, the vaccine can be given to other groups as well. The Health Council will issue an advice on this later. The Dutch vaccine offers 66 percent protection against disease and 85 percent protection against more severe forms of Covid-19, the disease caused by the corona virus.
It is the fourth corona vaccine that will become available in the Netherlands. Previously, the vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech, Moderna and AstraZeneca have been approved, supplied and given.
EMA
The European vaccine regulator, the European Medicines Agency (EMA), is investigating the Janssen vaccine. There have been four reports of people experiencing blood clots (thrombosis) and low platelet count (thrombocytopenia) after taking the medicine. According to the EMA, this number is within expectations. One of the four vaccinees died. Whether the complaints are actually caused by the vaccine has not yet been established.
Earlier, the EMA concluded that there is probably a link between the AstraZeneca vaccine and such complaints. Still, the advantages of that vaccine outweigh the disadvantages, according to the regulator: the chance of dying from the coronavirus is much greater than the chance of dying from the side effect. The Netherlands decided to only give the AstraZeneca vaccine to people over 60.
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