Is J&J Vaccine Effective Against Delta Variant? This African Study Answers in Affirmative

Data from a clinical trial in South Africa suggests that a single dose of the Covid-19 vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson is highly effective in preventing severe illness and death from the Delta and Beta variants of the coronavirus.

The South African study namely Sisonke, found that the J&J vaccine has an efficacy of up to 71% against hospitalization from the Delta variant, 67% against hospitalization from the Beta variant, and up to 96% against death. The data however has not yet been peer-reviewed or published in a scientific journal, reported The Wall Street Journal.

As per media reports, the trial evaluated one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in nearly 500,000 health care workers, who are at high risk of Covid-19 marked the first real-world test of the vaccine’s efficacy against Delta, a highly contagious variant of the virus surging across the United States and much of the world.

“We believe this vaccine is doing what it was designed to do, which was to stop people going to the hospital and stop them ending in I.C.U.s and dying,” said Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker, co-lead of the study and director of the Desmond Tutu H.I.V. Centre at the University of Cape Town was quoted saying.

The results suggest that people who have received one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine don’t need a booster shot, Dr. Bekker added.

The data serves as a huge relief to the recipient of the vaccine dose as earlier in April, South Africa temporarily paused its use after the U.S. decided to suspend the shot because of its link to rare blood clots. To add it to it, one U.S. study released last month led to the belief that the J&J shot produced relatively low levels of antibodies against Delta. In defense, J&J said that analysis had examined only one aspect of protection and didn’t consider long-lasting responses among immune cells stimulated by the vaccine.

The South African researchers recorded two cases of the rare clotting disorder associated with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the trial, but both participants have made a complete recovery, Time reported.

Earlier this year J&J agreed to supply as many as 400 million vaccines to the African Union through the end of 2022. So far, more than 8 million South Africans have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine.

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