Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that it has a new COVID-19 booster shot that provides antibodies, helping people stay safe from the coronavirus.
Does J&J have a COVID booster? Is it effective?
J&J said its booster shot offers a significant increase in antibodies in those who take it.
Specifically, J&J said people who received the booster shot six to eight months after their first and only dose saw “a rapid and robust increase in spike-binding antibodies, nine-fold higher than 28 days after the primary single-dose vaccination.”
- “We have established that a single shot of our COVID-19 vaccine generates strong and robust immune responses that are durable and persistent through eight months,” Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development for Janssen, said in a statement.
Will the J&J COVID-19 vaccine booster be approved?
Johnson & Johnson said it will meet with public health officials to talk about a potential strategy for what to do next with its vaccine.
Will J&J patients need a booster shot?
The Johnson & Johnson news comes as questions emerged about booster shots for those who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Experts have been calling for Americans to get a COVID-19 booster shot about eight months after the second dose of their two-dose mRNA vaccine. But there was no immediate guidance given about what Johnson & Johnson patients should do, since that shot did not use mRNA and only required one dose.
- Officials said J&J recipients will need an extra shot to stay safe from COVID-19, per The Associated Press.
The call for boosters comes as a new study suggested the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine might not be very effective against the delta and lambda variants of the coronavirus. Antibodies would only help with protection.