Senior Biden government officials said Sunday that the first shots of the vaccine could be given against Johnson and Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine.
The drugmaker, which was written off over the weekend for the emergency use of the vaccine by both the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is expected to deliver 4 million shots this week.
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However, officials said they expected delivery to be “uneven” by March.
By the end of March, Johnson & Johnson plans to deliver 20 million shots. The company has promised to distribute 100 million doses by the summer.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, signed off on Sunday on the recommendation of an advisory committee to endorse the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
She said the shots came at a “potentially crucial time.”
“CDC’s latest data suggests that the recent decline in Covid-19 cases may be slowing and possibly declining to very high numbers,” Walensky said in a statement.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is for adults 18 and older. This is the only single dose dose for the virus.
Vaccinations from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna require two shots, three to four weeks apart.
All three vaccines are ‘very effective’, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and encouraged people to take the vaccine on offer.
“If you go to a place and you have J&J and it’s the one available now, I would take it. I would personally do the same,” Fauci said. “I think people need to be vaccinated as quickly and as quickly as possible.”
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