| The U.S. just added another powerful tool against COVID-19 to its inventory: a third vaccine.
This latest piece of good news comes at a time U.S. health leaders say is critical in the country’s battle against the virus, as dropping cases begin to plateau and concerns grow over highly transmissible variants.
After the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Saturday, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted the next day to recommend the vaccine. The agency’s director signed off on that recommendation almost immediately — clearing the final hurdle before the vaccine can make it into arms.
“As a one-dose vaccine, people do not have to return for a second dose to be protected,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Sunday. “In addition, this vaccine does not need to be kept in a freezer and can be stored at refrigerated temperatures — so it is easy to transport and store and allows for expanded availability in most community settings and mobile sites, as supply scales up.”
While the weekly supply of vaccines will be limited over the next couple of weeks after the initial distribution, experts hope the additional doses will help boost vaccination numbers and aid the country in its race to vaccinate as many Americans as possible before another predicted COVID-19 case surge.
Experts worry that a variant-fueled surge of COVID-19 could be weeks away but cases will likely fall again by summer.
Coronavirus variants are why health leaders have highlighted it’s especially important to keep practicing safety precautions now — and help lower COVID-19 infection numbers — while states work to vaccinate more residents.
More than 2,460 cases of coronavirus variants first spotted in the U.K., South Africa and Brazil have so far been reported in the U.S., according to CDC data.
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