Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday that a second shot of its COVID-19 vaccine eight months after the initial dose was found in a study to increase people's immunity to the disease.
The drugmaker has been testing the efficacy of boosters in people who were previously injected with its single-dose vaccine. The latest findings show that individuals who received an additional shot saw a ninefold increase in antibody levels, according to J&J. The company said researchers observed a "rapid and robust" increase in antibodies in people ages 18 to 55 and in those 65 years and older who received a lower booster dose.
While the company's single-shot vaccine stimulates a strong immune response, "With these new data, we also see that a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine further increases antibody responses among study participants who had previously received our vaccine," said Dr. Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development at Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals, in a statement.
"We look forward to discussing with public health officials a potential strategy for our Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, boosting eight months or longer after the primary single-dose vaccination," he added.
J&J said it is working with the Food and Drug Administration, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, European Medicines Agency and other health agencies on rolling out booster shots.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Monday that it hasgranted full approval to Pfizer and BioNTech for theirCOVID-19vaccine to be given to Americans as young as 16.
Roughly 13.8 million Americans have received J&J's coronavirus vaccine. Although studies suggest that the degree of immunity conferred by the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines fades over time, those studies have excluded J&J's shot.
Yet several studies ranging fromantibody researchthat has yet to be peer-reviewed to anecdotal reports ofmore hospitalizationsin outbreaks among vaccinated people have raised concerns that J&J's vaccine offers weaker protection to the highly contagious Delta variant.
The White House said last week that Americans who received Pfizer and Moderna shots should get booster shots eight months after their second dose, and at the same time advised that J&J vaccine recipients would eventually also need an additional shot.
With the Delta variant ravaging large swaths of the southern U.S. and COVID-19 cases rising in other states, more employers and government entities are moving to require that workers get vaccinated. Attorneys say the FDA's approval of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week will likely spur many businesses to mandate vaccines.
Worried about potential side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine? Are you unsure what activities are safe following vaccination? Whether youre vaccinated or not, AL.com will be reaching out to public health experts to get your concerns addressed about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Just send an email to vaccines@al.com and well get an expert to directly answer your question.
Here are the questions we have been able to answer for readers.
Vaccinations to protect from COVID-19 have grown in importance with the rise of the delta variant and surging infection numbers and hospitalizations across Alabama. We are taking your questions about the vaccines and getting answers from healthcare experts.
To get some answers, we consulted Rachael Lee, M.D., infectious disease physician, UAB. It should be noted that specific questions about your own health should be addressed with your primary care provider.
Question: We read about people being treated for COVID-19 who ask for the vaccine and are told its too late. Why is it too late? Wouldnt giving them the vaccine help as a treatment?
Lee said the vaccine is not a treatment for COVID-19, but a preventative measure. Once the active infection begins, a vaccine would not be helpful.
There are various therapeutic measures that physicians use to treat active COVID, Lee said. Once recovered, a patient could get the vaccine to help prevent another infection.
How long does someone have to wait? Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, UAB director of the division of infectious diseases, said once your symptoms are resolved and you no longer feel ill, you can get the vaccine. There is no need to wait any specific number of days.
Question: I am fully vaccinated (Pfizer in Jan 2021), but have a newborn who obviously is not. I return to work next week in the medical field from parental leave. I am becoming increasingly worried about bringing COVID home asymptomatically given the rise in Delta variant cases and reports of vaccination protection waning. I intend to get a booster ASAP, but with these not yet available, what additional steps can I take to reduce the risk of me accidently introducing COVID to her?
For this question, we consulted Benjamin Estrada, who leads the department of pediatric infectious diseases at USA Health and Dr. Haidee Custodio, a pediatric infectious disease physician who sees patients at USA Health Childrens & Womens Hospital.
Here are some other things you can do to prevent the spread of COVID.
Here is more information on COVID vaccines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Temple University has set an Oct. 15 deadline for all students, faculty and staff to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The announcement came after the City of Philadelphia implemented a new mandate stating all health-care workers, faculty and students of local colleges and universities need to be fully vaccinated or wear masks while indoors and get tested for COVID-19 at least once per week.
Temple athletics is required to follow university policies, which means all student-athletes and coaches are obligated to receive the vaccine unless they have a medical or religious exemption. Athletes and staff are about 80-85% vaccinated at the moment, said Kevin Addison, Temples associate director of athletic training. A mask mandate also will apply to all athletes when indoors.
While Temples athletic trainers continue to educate athletes and staff on the benefits of the vaccine, those who remain unvaccinated will abide by Philadelphia, NCAA and AAC COVID-19 procedures.
That education process started in earnest last season when players were required to have a nose swab and health check-in before class as part of their daily routine. It continued when they arrived to campus for training camp and received a single polymerase chain reaction or nucleic acid amplification test within five days of arrival.
READ MORE: Villanovas Jay Wright loved his Team USA mens basketball Olympic experience but it wasnt always fun
This year vaccinated athletes will only receive testing if they show symptoms or have a documented close contact, according to the NCAA. But unvaccinated players will receive a PCR test three days before competition or an antigen test within one day of competition. If a community spread is substantial or high, those athletes will take a weekly polymerase chain reaction test or an antigen test three times a week.
[Philadelphias] city guidance right now is three times a week that they have to be tested, and the university is two times a week when youre coming onto campus, said Jessica Reo, executive senior associate athletic director. Right now, our non-vaccinated people are getting tested three times per week.
Temples athletic trainers handled testing last season, monitoring health and positive cases for all student-athletes. With vaccination rates going up, the athletic department will now shift that responsibility and utilize on-campus resources for unvaccinated players who need testing.
With the number of student-athletes that we have that are vaccinated, and the staff that we have that are vaccinated right now, Reo said, weve been able to redirect some of that tracking and stress into care for our student-athletes.
Addisons staff met with Temples athletes in the spring and left them with a piece of paper providing background information on vaccine availability.
In early August, Addisons staff emphasized hygiene and social distancing in talks with athletes, and reminded them to avoid compromised situations.
We were able to kind of keep track of the percentage of each team that was vaccinated and we will reach out to those people who arent vaccinated, Addison said, because they know whats going on in the city is required.
The NCAA and AAC will maintain the same quarantine procedures, but if a vaccinated athlete comes in contact with a positive person theyll continue practicing.
They will have to be tested within three to five days of that exposure, so then they still can practice, they should be masked at all times other than when theyre practicing, Reo said If they are positive, then they go into isolation, just like normal, and they have to be in isolation for 10 days.
Reo said the goal is for student-athletes to take the initiative and communicate with their coaches if they arent feeling well.
Temple athletics motto was flexibility last season, and although restrictions are loosened, the school is still deciding what theyll do if athletes arent vaccinated by the deadline without an exemption. Loss of access to university buildings, suspension or expulsion are all possible risks, senior associate athletic director Lee Roberts said.
Anyone who is not vaccinated will be required to be tested, whether they have a medical or religious exemption, Reo said. Theyre still going to have to be tested regularly if theyre not vaccinated.
Traveling restrictions are another underlying area of concern for unvaccinated coaches and students, whose ability to fly with the team during competition could be affected.
Our kids all travel together, on an airplane and then on the bus, Roberts said. You know who youre traveling with, but theyll have to go back to wearing the mask as needed.
Fans who wish to attend indoor events will be required to wear a mask for entry and be asked to socially distance.
We will probably encourage people to spread out rather than sitting in a cluster, Roberts said. We have the capacity for more than 3,000, so people are more than welcome to spread out.
Outdoor sports, like field hockey and soccer, will not require fans to wear masks in the stands, but Lee could see the protocols changing as proof of vaccination is not currently required.
Temple football will follow the Eagles protocols during home games, which will require fans and stadium staff at Lincoln Financial Field to wear masks in indoor spaces regardless of vaccination status.
We are just trying to limit how much contact you have with people because you dont want to go around asking everyone, Are you vaccinated? Lee said. What we try to do is create some distance, which allows the student-athletes to play their event and also for fans, friends, family to still be able to enjoy the event.
One frequently heard pushback against vaccine mandates is that there is a "constitutional right" to choose whether to be vaccinated or not for adults and a right to determine whether children can be vaccinated. That is a non-starter in the midst of a pandemic.
The Constitution is not a suicide pact guaranteeing a right to harm others. The government has latitude to protect citizens from deadly conditions, especially when the science supporting vaccination is so clear.
We agree, but also believe that the public needs to better understand that there is no constitutional right to avoid vaccine mandates against a deadly disease.
Those challenging the government mandates are likely to invoke their rights under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments, which protect speech, religion, and a right not to "be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law." Their view ends up as a snapshot of themselves; nonetheless, rights can be limited if a person is endangering another.
The government may prohibit otherwise constitutionally protected conduct to save the lives of others.
For example, it is well-settled that governments can ban yelling "Fire" in a crowded theater, because such speech can lead to death as attendees race to the exits. True, the First Amendment's Speech Clause protects the "freedom of speech," but there is no requirement that the government can't prevent scenarios likely leading to death.
The same reasoning applies to vaccine mandates. The Supreme Court explicitly upheld vaccine mandates against deadly diseases in Jacobson, where it explained: "the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand." We live in a country of ordered liberty, not individual autonomy that paves the way to the deaths of others. In short, it is not the right of every American citizen to catch and transmit a potentially fatal infection.
The depth of the science and the worldwide experience show plainly that vaccination is the best protection from this pandemic, and that the faster we reach herd immunity the more likely it will be that people won't die from this virus, hospitals won't be overburdened, and the economy will fully recover.
Children and adults have a constitutional right to "life" that can only be protected if there is mass vaccination. It's time for state and local governments to issue vaccine mandates and fines -- as New York and San Francisco have -- before this virus mutates into an even more elusive killer than it already is.
Vaccine mandates, with medical and religious exemptions, had been popping up at companies and universities even before the FDA granted full approval to Pfizer-BioNTechs coronavirus vaccine this week. But that announcement knocked down one of the anti-vaxxers main lame excuses Its an experimental drug! and paved the way for corporations, venues, restaurants and schools to more comfortably require proof of vaccination.
View Full Press Release (PDF)
The Monroe County Department of Public Health has set up an appointment reservation system for immunocompromised individuals who qualify for a third dose of Moderna or Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Third dose vaccines are available at all Monroe County vaccine clinics.
Eligible individuals are strongly encouraged to make an appointment through the online reservation system or by calling the COVID-19 Hotline at (585) 753-5555. While walk-ins are also welcome, the wait times may be longer without an appointment.
MAKE AN APPOINTMENT HERE:www.monroecounty.gov/healthcalls/vac/form/extra
FIND A LIST OF MONROE COUNTY VACCINE CLINICS HERE:www.monroecounty.gov/health-covid19-vaccine
MCDPH recommends individuals contacttheir healthcare provider about whether getting an additional dose is appropriate for them at this time.To receive a third dose, individuals must have received their second dose at least 28 days prior to getting an additional dose, and meet one or more of the following criteria:
TOKYO The Japanese health authorities on Thursday announced that they would halt the use of over 1.6 million doses of Modernas coronavirus vaccine after some vaccination sites reported finding tainted vials.
The problem comes as Japan, which initially struggled to get its vaccination program into full gear, confronts its worst wave of Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began, raising concerns that medical systems in some parts of the country could be overwhelmed.
Unspecified contaminants were discovered in nearly 40 doses of the vaccine at eight locations across Japan, prompting the decision to pull the lot that included them, as well as two other lots produced at the same location, the public broadcaster NHK reported.
In a statement, Takeda Pharmaceutical, the company that distributes the shots in Japan, said that it had asked Moderna to carry out an urgent investigation into the cause of the problem. Takeda did not report any concerns about health issues arising from use of the tainted vials.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the chief cabinet secretary, Katsunobu Kato, said that an unknown number of people had been vaccinated with the contaminated doses, but that the government had received no reports of ill effects. He urged people with concerns to consult their doctors.
After getting off to a slow start, Japan is now administering over a million vaccine doses each day. Currently, about 43 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. In addition to Moderna, Japan has approved the use of vaccines produced by Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
However, as the inoculation program has accelerated, so has the virus. Tokyo declared its fourth state of emergency in July as it confronted a rapid rise in cases driven by the Delta variant. The situation has since deteriorated rapidly, with daily case numbers reaching over 25,000 for the first time on Friday. Total deaths are at nearly 15,700.
The decision to withdraw the Moderna doses is not expected to have a major impact on the overall vaccination program, Mr. Kato said, adding that the government was working to reduce any disruptions.
Despite the rising numbers, Tokyo has carried on more or less as usual. The city is currently hosting the Paralympics, which opened on Tuesday.
Much like for the Olympics, which were held for two weeks starting at the end of July, the organizers of the Paralympic Games have adopted strict measures such as daily testing of athletes to try to keep infection rates down. Since Aug. 12, 184 people associated with the Paralympics have tested positive for Covid-19. On Thursday, Japanese news media reported that an athlete had been hospitalized with the virus, which would be a first for the event.
Woman released from hospital to find husband dead at home
Ken Suarez reports
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. - A Polk County woman battling COVID-19 in the hospital came home to a horrifying scene involving her husband.
"It was like walking into a horror film, and I wish I had never seen him like that because I cant get that picture out of my head," Lisa Steadman tearfully told FOX 13.
She found her husband, Ron, dead from the virus.
Ron had been diagnosed at a walk-in clinic with COVID a week and a half before. Since his case did not seem severe, he was sent home with medication to recuperate.
Meanwhile, Lisa was struggling in Winter Haven Hospital.
"I thought I was going to die. I couldnt breathe. I couldnt stop throwing up," she recalled.
She was becoming exhausted from the struggle to just keep going.
"It is like you dont have no bones in your body. You cant move. Youre just that weak."
RELATED: Battling cancer and unable to get vaccine, Polk teacher dies from COVID-19 complications
Sheriff Judd is urging everyone to get vaccinated after one of his deputies, 32-year-old Christopher Broadhead, died of COVID-19.
After about a week, during one of the couples phone conversations, Ron told Lisa his phone was not holding a charge. The following day she called him but couldnt get through, so she asked Winter Haven police to check on him.
When they did, everything seemed to be OK.
Two days later, Lisa was released from the hospital. When she got home, she found Ron dead.
"They say he died of COVID-related problems because they know he had COVID," Lisa continued. "They dont know if he had a heart attack from COVID or if he had an embolism. They dont know."
RELATED: Parent of 12-year-old in ICU urges Polk County to take up mask mandates
Neither Lisa nor Ron had been vaccinated. After going through this, Lisa plans to have the shot.
LINK: If you want to help Lisa with funeral and other personal expenses, she has set up a Facebook page: www.facebook.com/donate/538272510830722/543014757023164/
Aug. 26, 2021 -- About one third of the US population had been infected with coronavirus 2 by the end of 2020, according to a new study published today in Nature.
Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, director of the Climate and Health Program at Columbia University, and colleagues simulated the spread of coronavirus within all 3,142 counties in the United States.
The United States had the highest number of confirmed COVID-19 cases and deaths in the world during 2020. More than 19.6 million cases were reported by the end of the year.
But the authors point out "69% of the population remained susceptible to viral infection."
Jill Foster, MD, a pediatric infectious disease doctor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Minneapolis says the study adds evidence that : "We have not turned the corner on COVID-19 and are nowhere near herd immunity if it exists for SARS-CoV-2."
She said the numbers presented are particularly concerning in regard to how many people were susceptible and were actively able to infect others: "Much higher than most people imagined and very much higher than their comparison, influenza. "There are still more people susceptible than we had believed," Foster added. "If the pattern continues where the Delta variant infects a significant portion of those vaccinated, the number of people susceptible rises even higher than was predicted."
Foster said these numbers represent a warning that COVID should be treated as a continuing threat.
"We need to acknowledge that there is COVID-19 infection simmering and periodically erupting throughout the country," she said. "It is not monolithic and varies by geography and seasons in ways that are difficult to predict other than at any given time there is likely more infection present than we are identifying and more people susceptible to infection than we have calculated."
Some of the data showed good news, Shaman says. The infection death rate fell from 0.77% in April to 0.31% in December. The authors suggest that that may be because of improvements in diagnosis and treatment, patient care, and reduced disease severity.
However, the rate of death was still nearly four times as high as the estimated death rate for the flu (0.08%) and the 2009 flu pandemic (0.0076%), the authors point out.
Joe K. Gerald, MD, , program director with public health policy and management at University of Arizona in Tucson, says this study helps confirm that COVID-19 is much deadlier than the flu and that the intensity of the response has been appropriate.
"We should be willing to invest a lot more in mitigating COVID-19 than seasonal influenza because it has much greater consequences," he said.
The numbers help emphasize that testing must improve. "We didn't have enough tests available, and they weren't easily accessible. For much of the year we were flying in the dark," Gerald said.
The number of tests has increased this year, he acknowledged, but testing still lags.
"We just can't miss this many infections or diagnoses and hope to gain control," he said.
The study also points out the huge variation by state and even by county in infections and deaths, and that variation continues. Gerald noted that the numbers make it difficult for some regions to accept broader mandates, because the threat from COVID-19 appears very different where they are.
"We have to think about regions, how many people are susceptible, and what the testing capacity is," he said. "States and even counties should have some leeway to make some important public health decisions, because local conditions are going to differ at different points in time."
WebMD Health News
New coronavirus infections continue to rise across the U.S., perpetuating a preventable wave of suffering that's already straining hospitals and killing an average of 1,000 Americans per day.
The big picture: The biggest increases are happening primarily in a cluster of states where vaccination rates are low and safety measures like masks are spotty.
By the numbers: The U.S. is now averaging over 150,000 new coronavirus cases per day a 22% increase over the past two weeks.
What's happening: In general, the states with the lowest vaccination rates are now seeing the biggest growth in new infections, and many of those same states are so overwhelmed with seriously ill COVID patients that they're running out of ICU beds.
