Once to the vaccination village, and immediately ready to travel: that is the promise that Johnson & Johnson’s corona vaccine has to offer. Where with other vaccines you have to wait weeks for shot number two, after one dose of Johnson & Johnson you can already look forward to the corona certificate, which allows you to travel within Europe.
Ideal? Yes but. There are still at least three catches in the grass.
1. You may not be able to travel right away
Anyone who has just been vaccinated is still just as susceptible to the coronavirus as before. According to studies, it takes about two to three weeks for immunity to get going. It is impossible to say per individual, but on average a group of vaccinated people will receive an average of 67 percent less corona than a group that has not been vaccinated.
In short, your vaccination is administratively in order, but that does not mean that you are already ‘safe’ the day after your injection. The question now is whether you will receive your vaccine passport immediately, or only a few weeks after your last shot. This week, Europe must make a decision on that issue. So that will have to wait and see.
2. The protection is (slightly) less good
To be fair, the 67 percent protection of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is probably an underestimate. For example, the effectiveness of the vaccine in an analysis in the US came out at 77 percent protection.
But that still cannot match the effectiveness of the so-called ‘mRNA’ vaccines, from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna. These result in a protection against covid of 90 (Moderna) to more than 95 percent (Pfizer). There are also tentative indications that the mRNA vaccines provide slightly better protection against the mutated virus variants from countries such as India, South Africa and South America.
At the same time, such differences are also a bit for the ant fuckers. For example, the 1-shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson prevents no less than 85 percent of all serious illnesses, and (in studies with a duration of several months) all deaths from corona. In this respect, the vaccine is quite comparable to the shots from Pfizer and Moderna.
3. The vaccine has (slightly) more side effects
It is wise not to stuff your agenda too enthusiastically in the first days after vaccination: the corona vaccines in most cases cause noticeable side effects, such as headache, fatigue, muscle aches or fever.
And the Johnson & Johnson vaccine generally does that a little more. In preliminary studies, Johnson & Johnson users were slightly more likely to complain of fever, headache, nausea and muscle aches. Although you should not see that too black and white: the Pfizer vaccinees, for example, indicated slightly more often that they had taken a painkiller for the side effects. And the side effects also apply: with Johnson & Johnson you are done in one go, the Pfizertjes have to suffer one more time.
Finally, at Johnson & Johnson there is the very rare side effect of TTS: unusual thrombosis with platelet deficiency. Rare, however, is the keyword here. The side effect has been identified 28 times in the US after 8 million Johnson & Johnson shots. That is a risk of roughly 1 in 300,000, although it may be slightly higher for young people.
Why is a voluntary AstraZeneca shot not possible?
Similar side effects were noted at AstraZeneca, which uses the same technique as Johnson & Johnson. However, the age limit of 41 remains unchanged there, with no choice for those younger. At AstraZeneca you have to wait another eight weeks for a second shot. Unlike Johnson & Johnson, where only one shot is needed, extra bets on AstraZeneca would just delay the campaign to get everyone vaccinated.
Moreover, AstraZeneca is the only manufacturer that does not provide any guarantees regarding deliveries in the coming weeks. And there is the ongoing conflict with the European Commission, whereby the contract will be terminated from 1 July and only the orders placed will arrive. By then, all over 40s will be vaccinated. “We don’t really count on AstraZeneca anymore,” says Dirk Dewolf, CEO of the Flemish Agency for Care and Health.
Mind you, that doesn’t mean that AstraZeneca’s syringes go into the trash. They may still be used for a third shot or for the Covax campaign, to supply developing countries with vaccines.
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