| With Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine on the verge of being authorized for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Americans are taking another look at the vaccine and its data. And what they see might initially give them pause.
For several months, public health experts praised the approximately 95% efficacy seen in vaccines by Pfizer-BioNtech and Moderna. But the data surrounding the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, developed by the company’s vaccine arm, Janssen, falls short of that figure.
But those comparisons aren’t fair, experts say. They say the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an effective vaccine that offers good protection against severe forms of COVID-19. Anyone should take it if given the opportunity.
“My big concern here is that the Johnson & Johnson is being labeled as the inferior vaccine,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore public health commissioner, “when that’s not a fair assessment to make.”
According to an analysis by the Food and Drug Administration, the single-dose vaccine showed about 66% efficacy globally against moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 cases four weeks after inoculation. But in the United States, the vaccine showed a 72% efficacy. Against severe forms of the disease, it’s even higher, offering nearly 86% protection.
And that’s what people should be focused on, experts say.
“That’s probably the most important part of this vaccine or any of the COVID vaccines is the protection against hospitalizations and severe disease and dying,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Disease at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and director of the Alabama Vaccine Research Clinic.
“If we could prevent people completely from dying or getting hospitalized with COVID, we don’t have a problem anymore,” Goepfert said. | 
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