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The WHO’s expert vaccine advisers on Wednesday advocated Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 jab to be used in countries where coronavirus variations of concern are circulating.
The World Health Organization gave its seal of approval on Friday to the vaccine, which has the benefits of being a single-shot jab which may be kept at regular refrigeration as opposed to ultra-cold temperatures.
After meeting on Monday, the WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) on Immunization issued its recommendations Wednesday on how the vaccine should be used — also said it had proven successful against what are termed variants of concern.
Comparing mass trials of the vaccine in various countries, SAGE explained that despite the South African variant being predominant in that country,”similar efficacies were observed as in the US”, it said,”in which newly-emerging variants of concern were not predominant” during testing.
The same was true in Brazil, which has had its own predominant variant in circulation.
“We have a vaccine that shows to be safe and it shows to get the essential efficacy to be recommended by us for use in people above age 18, with no upper age limit,” SAGE seat Alejandro Cravioto told reporters.
“In the countries where there is a large spread of the variants and in countries where we now have information regarding using this vaccine to control SARS-CoV-2 caused by these variants, we suggest that you use it.”
Efficacy
Across the board, one dose of the vaccine has 66.9 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease; 76.7 percent efficacy against severe COVID-19 disease after 14 days; and 85.4 percent effectiveness after day 28, SAGE said.
“Vaccine efficacy against hospitalisations was 93.1 percent. Vaccine efficacies were maintained across genders, age and ethnicities,” the experts said.
SAGE stated that as with other COVID-19 jabs, it should be injected under health care oversight, with medical treatment on hand in case of allergic reactions.
People should wait at least 14 days prior to receiving any additional vaccine.
As for pregnant women, there was insufficient data to assess vaccine-associated risks, though breastfeeding women should be offered the jab as normal.
Individuals who have already had COVID-19 should be given the vaccine, but may opt to wait until up to six months following infection, because they will already have a level of natural protection.
However, in areas with variants of concern, they should not step back in the queue as”emerging data indicate that symptomatic reinfection may occur”.
“The best interval between a natural disease and vaccination is not yet understood,” said SAGE.
The J&J vaccine is the only single-shot jab to have been granted WHO authorisation.
Annelies Wilder-Smith, technical adviser to the SAGE secretariat, told reporters the jab was a”welcome added weapon” rather than a game-changer in the struggle against COVID-19.
The J&J jab won approval from the European Union on Thursday. It has also received the green light from regulators in the USA, Canada and South Africa.
The jab is one of the main vaccines being lined up for supply to poorer countries around the world via the Covax global vaccine-sharing scheme.
Some 500 million J&J doses have been promised to the facility and the WHO expects it could be rolled out through the programme from July, if not earlier.
