Vaccine latest: J&J EFFECTIVE against Delta variant, study finds

There’s some good news on the vaccine front: The Sisonke Implementation Study has found that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is effective against the Delta variant, which accounted for South Africa’s third wave and spreads quite rapidly.

The results of the study were presented by its co-principal lead Professor Glenda Gray on Friday, 6 August 2021. Gray said the findings indicate that there is great protection against COVID-19 hospitalisation and death.

“Protection is good against both the Beta and the Delta variant. There was 67% protection against hospitalisation with the Beta variant and 71% protection against hospitalisation with the Delta variant,” she said.

Gray said their data shows that there is better efficacy against Delta than there is against the Beta.

More than 477 000 healthcare workers were administered the J&J vaccine at the start of the trial back in February.

No links between deaths and J&J vaccine

In news that will possibly allay some fears around the J&J vaccine, Professor Glenda Gray also said their study found there was no connection between 28 people who apparently died after receiving the jab.

“Every person in Sisonke who died within 28 days [of getting the vaccine], we did a full post mortem to evaluate if there was any association. We did not see any safety signal around the vaccine causing deaths. We saw two clotting disorders [in the study] but they weren’t fatal. We were able to manage them.”

Professor Glenda Gray

When the South African Health Products Regulatory Authority (SAHPRA) appeared Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Health, they confirmed there had been more than 3 700 complications reported besides the fatalities.

At the same briefing, the new Health Minister Dr Joe Paahla said the country’s vaccine supplies had stabilised and that there are about 10 million vials on storage.

“In August alone we will have received over 20 million doses of vaccines, The supply of vaccines has stabilised and for the remainder of the year we expect to deliver another 21 million doses of vaccines. This means that the vaccination programme can be expanded to reach more people and be accelerated to cover more and more of the population,” he said.