Mock COVID-19 vaccine. (Photo: Hakan Nural)
The Department of Veterans Affairs has received over 70,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, the agency announced Thursday.
The Janssen vaccine is already being rolled out to VA health care systems throughout the country, including facilities in California, according to a press release.
Unlike the vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, the Janssen vaccine only requires one dose and doesn’t need advanced refrigeration. The trade-off is that the Janssen vaccine has an efficacy rate of 85% against severe disease and 66% against moderate disease that starts about four weeks after the dose is administered. The other two have an efficacy rate above 90% and protection is thought to develop quicker.
The news comes after the Food and Drug Administration granted Emergency Use Authorization for the Janssen vaccine late in February. That the vaccine doesn’t require the same freezing temperatures as the other vaccines is expected to speed up vaccine rollout progress, especially in more rural or underserved areas that do not have advanced refrigeration capabilities.
To date, the VA says it has fully vaccinated over 925,000 veterans, staff, and partners with another 720,000 expecting a second dose in the near future. It is unclear when the VA expects to have enough doses of the vaccine for all patients; however, veterans can visit the VA’s COVID-19 portal for up-to-date information.
More broadly, according to a recent statement by President Joe Biden, the United States should be able to produce enough vaccine doses for every adult by the end of May. If this timetable proves true, then all Americans—including veterans—are expected to be able to get the vaccine should they want to within a few months, depending on state and logistical factors.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
