Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top immunologist, said Friday a third coronavirus vaccine would add an essential tool to the country’s arsenal against the pandemic, despite its lower effectiveness in research trials.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spoke about the single-vaccine Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is expected to be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for authorization for emergency use as early as next week, during an interview on ” Nightly News with Lester Holt “Friday.
“The protection against serious diseases is very high,” he said.
The vaccine has an effective rate of 72 percent to prevent symptomatic Covid-19, Johnson & Johnson said earlier in the day. This compares with 95 percent for the Pfizer vaccine and 94 percent for the Moderna version.
The J&J vaccine does not require the extraordinary cold storage that the others require, and requires only basic cooling, the company said. The other two also need a second hold.
“From a practical point of view,” Fauci said, “… to keep people out of the hospital and prevent death – that’s value added.”
The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA to teach the immune system how to fight the coronavirus. Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine uses an inactivated adenovirus, a type of virus that causes colds.
Fauci does not read much in the lower effective rate. In an earlier interview with the New York Press Club, he said: ‘Seventy-two percent would have been effective’ Wow ‘if the J&J vaccine had been presented to the world before the others.
In fact, he said on “Nightly News with Lester Holt” that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which he says does not provide hospitalizations during trials, has its benefits.
“You can just keep it in the fridge,” he said. “It’s relatively inexpensive. And the company can earn billions of doses.”
He said the addition of a third vaccine to the US arsenal could not come fast enough, as vaccination would be the country’s most effective weapon against mutations, including the British B.1.1.7 version and a South African variant.
However, the J&J vaccine is only 57 percent affective compared to the latter. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines could be modified to attack new variants, Fauci said.
Until the pandemic is under control, the virus will continue to mutate in an effort to survive and thrive, Fauci said. A majority of Americans need to be vaccinated for normal lives to return by the fall, he said.
“It’s not a matter of can we,” the doctor said. “We have to do it.”
Lester Holt contributed.