The scientific committee advising the Government of Canada on vaccination recommended on Monday that the use of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine against Covid-19 be reserved for people aged 30 and over.
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This announcement by the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) comes hours after Denmark withdrew from the “J&J” vaccine because of possible serious side effects, despite green lights from the European regulator and the WHO for the 'use. In April, the US regulator temporarily suspended the use of this vaccine after rare cases of thrombosis. France has decided to administer it to people aged 55 and over, like that of AstraZeneca.
"Given the current data, NACI recommends offering the vaccine from Janssen (a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, editor's note), like that of AstraZeneca, to people aged 30 and over,"
said Caroline Quach, president of the CCNI, during a press briefing. This Johnson & Johnson vaccine can be offered to those who have no contraindications,
"if the person prefers to be vaccinated more quickly than to wait for a messenger RNA vaccine and if the benefits outweigh the risks" ,
she clarified.
“In clinical trials, the single dose Janssen vaccine was found to be 67% effective
,” she said.
The provinces and territories of Canada may adapt the age threshold for administering this serum depending in particular on their vaccine supply. On March 5, Health Canada cleared Johnson & Johnson's single-dose Covid-19 vaccine from the U.S. lab for people 18 years of age and older, but it has yet to be distributed nationwide. The distribution of the first shipment containing 300,000 doses of this vaccine was delayed by the Ministry of Health on Friday due to concerns over its quality. The group is facing production problems in a plant in Baltimore, in the US state of Maryland, managed by the firm Emergent BioSolutions, with a batch of vaccine doses that do not meet quality standards.
