JOHNSON AND JOHNSON NEWS

 "We are all worms. However, I do believe I am a glow-worm".  Winston Spencer Churchill. on humanity's  morality and his. 

JNJ reported on their vaccine today. Overall 72% effective in reducing mortality and severe Covid infections in the US,  66% in Latin America, and 57% in Afirca. The efficacy rate  is below the magic 95% number of Pfizer and Moderna.  The real number is in the details, so pay attention.  Pfizer and Moderna did not test overseas and did not test during the spread of the new Covid variants.  We do not have much data on how effective their vaccines are in the current and rapidly changing enviroment. 

The OVERALL effective rate for the JnJ jab  in preventing infection is 85%, well above the CDC guidelines for approval of any vaccine. The number is also 85% worldwide in preventing severe disease that requires hospitalization. 

What to make of this? It is good news. It is a one shot vaccine in which one billion doses can be distributed and injected in 2021. One billion doses. It does not need to be chilled below normal refrigeration.  It is a game changer. The vaccine appears to INCREASE immunity over time due to the operation of certain cellular biology that you dear reader, do not need to be bored with. 

JnJ will be filing an EUA (emergency use authorization) with the FDA next week. The phase three results on a two-dose regimen, which may well approach or exceed 95% will be released within the next two week. 

What we know about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines from Israel where 40% of the population has been vaccinated is that the first round of numbers show a protection rate approaching 99%. For example in one population study of over 200,000 people, less than 20 contracted Covid. The point is that as the JnJ vaccine is released and data from hundreds of thousands of people is analyzed, the efficacy rate will rise, if for no other reason that as more and more of the population is vaccinated or recovers from an infection the R transmission rate will continue to fall below that all important 1 number, meaning for every person infected, less than one person gets the disease from that new infection. This is how pandemics burn out. 

Rumpole says, if you are offered the JnJ vaccine, TAKE IT. Please. If we get the JnJ vaccine, we will be ready to try our backlog of cases the following week (wearing a mask). We will take 75% protection, and wearing a mask that is 95% effective, in a world where most of the people we come into contact with are either vaccinated, have immunity from a prior infection, or both. The news is good once we get a better roll-out. 

We have some thoughts about US Congress representatives who advocate shooting and killing other members of the House and who harass children who survived school shootings. That will come shortly after we finish our legal obligations for the day.