South Africa study shows J&J booster 85% effective against Omicron hospitalisation

pharmafile | January 14, 2022 | News story | Medical Communications  

The head of South Africa’s Medical Research Council (SAMRC) has revealed that a J&J booster shot is 85% effective in protecting against being hospitalised by the Omicron variant for 1-2 months after it is administered.

The study involved 477,235 healthcare workers, all of them vaccinated with the J&J shot, of whom approximately half (236,000) had received the J&J booster jab. The study looked at hospitalisations among those healthcare workers who had been infected during the fourth wave, and found that the booster shot reduced hospitalisations by 63% in the first two weeks after the booster, going up to 85% after that for between one and two months.

Glenda Gray presented these findings at a South African health ministry briefing on the COVID-19 fourth wave, which has been largely driven by the rapid spread of Omicron. “We saw an 85% vaccine effectiveness and we saw that this kind of vaccine effectiveness is maintained for up to two months,” she said. “We are very happy to report very high levels of vaccine effectiveness against Omicron.”

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“This is the world’s first evidence of vaccine effectiveness (against Omicron) using the J&J vaccine,” Gray added.

The J&J shot is considered logistically preferable to the Pfizer vaccine, according to South African authorities, as it is a single dose regimen, making it easier to distribute in rural areas.

A separate study, conducted by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases of South Africa (NICD) suggested that Omicron may cause less severe disease than previous variants, even among unvaccinated people.

Lina Adams

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