The state of Michigan is expected to receive 82,700 doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) COVID-19 vaccine this week.
The J&J vaccine doses are expected in Michigan by Wednesday, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) said Monday. These doses will go to health departments and hospitals.
Over the weekend, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for an emergency use authorization. The J&J one-dose vaccine joins Pfizer and Moderna to give Americans three options. Nearly 4 million doses of the J&J vaccine are expected to start shipping across the U.S. on Monday.
Michigan has reported more than 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines administered as of Thursday, Feb. 25.
Here’s what to know about the J&J vaccine:
Aside from being a one-dose vaccine instead of two, the J&J vaccine can be stored in a normal refrigerator unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines -- it’s not a mRNA vaccine.
Instead, the J&J vaccine uses a harmless, weakened cold virus to carry instructions into the body to trigger the immune response and a method developed a decade ago and used for an ebola vaccine.
Johnson & Johnson CEO Alex Gorsky is a native Michigander. He used this Motown metaphor to describe the vaccine:
“Think of it as a car being made in Detroit with a basic chassis that had been used, and we took the different types of an interior and put it in for COVID-19,” said Gorsky.
Testing, efficacy
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been tested on nearly 44,000 people in United States, Latin America and South Africa. There have been no major side effects, including no allergic reactions.
It was 72% effective at preventing moderate and severe COVID symptoms and 85% effective at preventing the most serious symptoms.
That is less effective than the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that are roughly 95% effective, but those vaccines were also tested earlier before more variants may have been circulating.