A new study found that one dose of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was ineffective against the new delta variant of the disease but suggested that some of the 13 million people inoculated with the one dose of it could be protected with a second dose.
"The message that we wanted to give was not that people shouldn't get the J & J vaccine, but we hope that in the future, it will be boosted with either another dose of J & J or a boost with Pfizer or Moderna," said virologist Nathaniel Landau, the leader of the study who works at NYU's Grossman School of Medicine, according to The New York Times.
Other medical professionals have echoed Landau's position that in order for some of the vaccines to be effective, two doses need to be administered. "I have always thought, and often said, that the J & J vaccine is a two-dose vaccine," virologist John Moore said, who works at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.
Moore pointed to several studies that administered J & J vaccines to monkeys and people, which showed greater efficacy after two doses rather than one. Moore also indicated that Landau's study had no affiliation to vaccine manufacturers, which added credibility to the study.
But the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is not without its share of some controversy. Recently reports have come out that vaccine has caused rare neurological disorders, and blood clots in some. In early April, reports detailed that a manufacturing facility of the vaccine experienced contamination problems. According to researchers affiliated with J & J, they reported that the vaccine was only slightly less effective against the delta variant compared to the original virus, adding that antibodies stimulated by the vaccine grew in strength over eight months.
The Times also pointed to studies suggesting combining the J & J vaccine with an mRNA vaccine. The J & J vaccine is an adenovirus vaccine that uses technology similar to that in a flu shot. But some scientists have indicated that mRNA vaccines are still a new technology that could carry with them unknown long-term risks. Dr. Robert Malone, who credits himself as the inventor of mRNA technology, warned that the technology is still new and "very dangerous."
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