Risk of hospitalisation five times higher with J&J

pharmafile | March 3, 2022 | News story | Business Services, Medical Communications  

A study published in Jama Network Open has revealed that Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine was far less effective at reducing hospitalisation for COVID-19 than that of Pfizer. The study found that people over the age of 55 who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are as much as five times more likely to be hospitalised that those who had received the Pfizer vaccine.

Efficacy of the J&J vaccine at reducing hospitalisation is estimated to be around 68%, in comparison to the approximate 90% of mRNA vaccines. Overall, however, hospitalisations among the population vaccinated with Johnson & Johnson remain very low, with less than 0.5% off recipients being hospitalised with COVID-19.

The team gathered data from nearly 700,00 Pfizer recipients and nearly 700,000 people who received the J&J shot for the study. Each study subject who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was matched with a Pfizer recipient based of age, sex and geography.

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This study adds to the mounting case to receive a second booster dose with an mRNA vaccine like Moderna and Pfizer. The researchers shared that to their knowledge, the study is the largest to evaluate the effectiveness of the J&J vaccine in the general population to date, and “included almost the entire population (of France) aged 55 years or older” who received the vaccine by Johnson & Johnson.

Around 17 million in the US have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, according to data by the CDC. Meanwhile, over 123 million have received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and over 75 million, two doses of Moderna.

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