United States Approves Johnson & Johnson Single-Dose Vaccine

A vial of Johnson & Johnson's covid.AP vaccine

The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has authorized this Saturday the emergency use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for covid-19, which requires a single prick to immunize.

It is the third vaccine approved for the disease in the United States, after Pfizer and Moderna, and there are millions of doses ready for distribution, which are expected to begin reaching citizens early next week.

Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine is 85% safe and effective, according to information released this week by the FDA, the drug's licensing agency.

The FDA declaration paved the way for emergency approval, requested on February 5, which finally took place this Saturday.

The vaccine, according to a clinical trial on 44,000 people, was effective even with new variants of the virus.

The third vaccine comes when in the United States, where more than half a million people have died from covid, it begins to see how the contagion curve tends to flatten and deaths in nursing homes fall, but, at the same time, it grows concern about new variants of the virus.

Millions of Americans wait their turn to be vaccinated, and Johnson & Johnson has promised to deliver 100 million doses by the end of June.

In addition to the 600 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines (which require two injections) committed by the end of July, by mid-summer there would be more than enough vaccines to immunize all Americans who want it.