Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff. Lauren Vogelbaum here. On Friday February, the US
Speaker 1: Food and Drug Administration that is, the FDA released the
Speaker 1: results of its trial of the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
Speaker 1: The FDA found the vaccine to be safe and effective
Speaker 1: and granted this one dose COVID nineteen vaccine emergency use
Speaker 1: authorization at its advisory panel meeting on Saturday, February. The
Speaker 1: company began shipping three point nine million doses of the
Speaker 1: vaccine across the United States on Monday, March one. So
Speaker 1: how does the Johnson and Johnson vaccine work. This vaccine
Speaker 1: is what's called a viral vector vaccine. To create this vaccine,
Speaker 1: the Johnson and Johnson team took a harmless add no
Speaker 1: novirus and replaced a small piece of its genetic code
Speaker 1: with coronavirus genes that are instructions to create the particular
Speaker 1: spike protein that appears on the surface of the viruses
Speaker 1: that caused COVID nineteen. The harmless adnovirus is the titular
Speaker 1: viral vector in this viral vector vaccine. After this modified
Speaker 1: adnovirus is injected into someone's arm, it enters the person's cells.
Speaker 1: The cells then read the genetic instructions needed to make
Speaker 1: the spike protein, and those cells then make and present
Speaker 1: the spike protein on their own surface. The person's immune
Speaker 1: system then notices these foreign proteins and makes antibodies against
Speaker 1: them that will protect the person if they're ever exposed
Speaker 1: to the real harmful virus in the future. The adnovirus
Speaker 1: vector vaccine is safe because the anovirus can't replicate in
Speaker 1: human cells or cause disease, and the spike protein itself
Speaker 1: can't cause COVID nineteen without the rest of the coronavirus.
Speaker 1: This approach isn't new, but Johnsman Johnson used a similar
Speaker 1: method to make It's a Bowl of vaccine, and the
Speaker 1: Astrosenica Oxford COVID nineteen vaccine is also an adnovirus viral
Speaker 1: vector vaccine. But how effective is it. The FDGAS analysis
Speaker 1: found that in the United States, the Johnson and Johnson
Speaker 1: COVID nineteen vaccine was seventy two percent effective at preventing
Speaker 1: all COVID nineteen and eighty six percent effective at preventing
Speaker 1: severe cases of the disease, While there is still a
Speaker 1: chance that a vaccinated person could get sick, This suggests
Speaker 1: that they would be much less likely to need hospitalization
Speaker 1: or to die from COVID nineteen. A similar trial in
Speaker 1: South Africa, where a new and more contagious variant is dominant,
Speaker 1: produced similar results. A researchers found the Johnson and Johnson
Speaker 1: vaccine to be slightly less effective at preventing all illness
Speaker 1: there just sixty overall, but was still eighty two percent
Speaker 1: effective at preventing severe disease. The vaccine report also indicates
Speaker 1: that the vaccine protects against other variants from Britain and
Speaker 1: Brazil as well. This is a bit different from the
Speaker 1: Maderna and Fiser vaccines, the most basic difference being that
Speaker 1: the John's and Johnson vaccine is an adenovirus vector vaccine,
Speaker 1: while the Maderna and Fiser vaccines are both mRNA vaccines.
Speaker 1: M RNA or messenger RNA vaccines also use genetic instructions
Speaker 1: from the coronavirus to tell a person cells to make
Speaker 1: that spike protein, but these don't use another virus as
Speaker 1: a vector. There are many practical differences as well. Both
Speaker 1: of the mRNA based vaccines require two shots. The Johnson
Speaker 1: and Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose, and this
Speaker 1: is key when vaccines are in short supply or when
Speaker 1: it may be difficult to get a recipient of the
Speaker 1: first dose of a vaccine to return for a second
Speaker 1: one after a waiting period. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine
Speaker 1: can also be stored at much warmer temperatures than the
Speaker 1: mr Anda vaccines. The m r Anda vaccines must be
Speaker 1: shipped and stored below freezing or sub zero temperatures, which
Speaker 1: requires a bunch of technical equipment and care. The Johnson
Speaker 1: and Johnson vaccine can be stored for at least three
Speaker 1: months in a regular refrige raider, making it much easier
Speaker 1: to use and distribute. As for efficacy, it's difficult to
Speaker 1: directly compare the Johnson and Johnson vaccine with the mr
Speaker 1: and A vaccines due to differences in how the clinical
Speaker 1: trials were designed. While the Maderna and Visor vaccines are
Speaker 1: reported to be approximately effective at preventing illness from COVID nineteen,
Speaker 1: the trials were done over the summer and fall of
Speaker 1: before newer and more contagious variants were circulating widely. The
Speaker 1: Maderna A Visor vaccines might not be as effective against
Speaker 1: the new variants, and Johnson and Johnson trials were completed
Speaker 1: more recently and taken to account the vaccines efficacy against
Speaker 1: these new variants. So given all of this, should you
Speaker 1: choose one vaccine over another. Although the overall efficacy of
Speaker 1: the Maderna and Visor vaccines is reported to be higher
Speaker 1: than the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, you should not wait
Speaker 1: until you have your choice of vaccine, which is likely
Speaker 1: a long way off. Anyway, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine
Speaker 1: is nearly as good as the m RNA based vaccines
Speaker 1: at preventing serious disease, and that's what really matters. The
Speaker 1: Johnson and Johnson vaccine and other viral vector vaccines like
Speaker 1: the one from Astra Zeneca are particularly important for the
Speaker 1: global vaccinization effort. From public health perspective, it's important to
Speaker 1: have multiple COVID nineteen vaccines, and the Johnson and Johnson
Speaker 1: vaccine is a very welcome addition to the vaccine arsenal.
Speaker 1: It doesn't require a freezer, making it much easier to
Speaker 1: ship in store. It's a one shot vaccine, making logistics
Speaker 1: much easier compared with organizing two doses per person. As
Speaker 1: many people as possible need to be vaccinated as quickly
Speaker 1: as possible to limit the development of new coronavirus variants.
Speaker 1: Having a third authorized vaccine in the United States is
Speaker 1: a big step toward meeting vaccination demand and stopping this pandemic.
Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Maureene iran virologist and Associate
Speaker 1: Professor of biology at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and
Speaker 1: it was produced by Tyler Klang. The article was based
Speaker 1: on was republished on how stuff works dot com from
Speaker 1: The Conversation dot com under a Creative Commons license. Brain
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