Misleading: Johnson & Johnson is the "Best" Vaccine

Misbar has discovered that on February 4, 2021, the Johnson & Johnson company submitted an application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency use authorization for its COVID-19 vaccine. The FDA will meet on February 26, 2021 to make their recommendations according to Forbes. This means that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could join the vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer in the fight against COVID-19. 

Each of the three vaccines that would then be available to fight COVID-19 will be somewhat different from one another. For example, the first difference is that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been in use with the general public since December, 2020. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has yet to be used outside of clinical trials. Once the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approved, it will only require one dose, whereas the other two vaccines require two. 

Another example of the vaccines’ differences is efficacy. The Pfizer vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing COVID-19 according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The Moderna vaccine was 94 percent effective. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 72 percent effective in the U.S. at preventing moderate to severe COVID-19 and was 100 percent effective at preventing hospitalization and death of COVID-19. While the Pfizer and Moderna efficacy numbers are higher, at the time of testing those two vaccines, the newer (and possibly more contagious) variants of COVID-19 were not yet present. 

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are made using messenger RNA, or mRNA, a technology that teaches our cells how to make a protein to fend off COVID-19. This technology has been studied before, but not used in the general population before. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is using a different technology than the other two vaccines. It’s using a vectored viral approach. Viral vector vaccines use a modified version of a different virus as a way to deliver instructions, in the form of genetic material to a cell according to the CDC. This technology has already been used and approved to treat the Ebola virus. 

Another major difference will be the storage of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The two previously approved vaccines require extremely cold storage. Because it is using a different technology, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be stored in a regular refrigerator.