Oregon Health Authority announced the state will receive 80,000 new Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccines on March 22. This will essentially double the overall number of doses in the state and increase allocations to counties.
Lane County has already begun receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. 2,000 doses arrived this week. These are single shot vaccines-- with no need for a booster.
On Thursday (03/04/21) Lane Co. Public Health officials said they were informed by the state of the pending delivery of tens of thousands more J & J doses in coming weeks. They say they've had some questions about the new vaccine, namely around efficacy.
Senior Public Health Officer Dr. Patrick Luedtke said there’s a reason why the efficacy rate in preventing COVID-19 infections for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 66%--much lower than the other two (Pfizzer is 95% effective and Moderna is 94% effective.)
“Keep in mind, that there were essentially almost none of the variants out there causing problems during the trials of Pfizzer and Moderna.”
As KLCC reported this week, viral variants were discovered in Lane County and neighboring Douglas County. Besides the ability to protect against these mutations, Dr. Luedtke says there is a greater goal of the vaccine.
“This Johnson & Johnson vaccine was 93% effective at preventing that severe COVID disease, that hospitalization,” he said.
Luedtke added that no participants in any vaccine trials have died from COVID-19.
6.09% of Lane County residents have been fully vaccinated as of 03/03/21.
