The facts you should know about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

The array of vaccines available to reduce exposure to COVID-19 has grown, with an important new addition approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The Johnson& Johnson vaccine, approved for emergency use on Feb. 27, differs from the vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna in important ways, though all three are considered highly effective and safe.First, the Johnson& Johnson vaccine is administered in just a single dose, while the other vaccines require that two doses be administered several weeks apart. That means with Johnson& Johnson, recipients are done and considered immune two weeks after receiving the single dose. And once someone is fully vaccinated, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control says it ’s safe to:visit indoors with other fully vaccinated people without wearing a maskvisit indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household (for example, visiting with relatives who all live together) without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19In addition, the Johnson& Johnson vaccine does not require storage at freezing temperatures. This may make the vaccine especially adaptable to reaching rural and vulnerable communities, adding to the effort — driven by the availability of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — that has already resulted in more than 80 million people in the U.S. getting vaccinated.“We are very fortunate that a year into the pandemic we ...

Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - March 24, 2021 Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news