Johnson & Johnson board member Dr. Mark McClellan told CNBC Friday that there could be enough vaccinations for the entire U.S. adult population over the summer.
“Assuming all the detailed review of J&J data is complete, we will have the capacity between Modern, Pfizer, J&J to have enough vaccines available in June for the entire U.S. adult population,” said McClellan, a former FDA commissioner. he told “The News with Shepard Smith.”
The United States plans to buy 200 million doses of Covid vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer. The Department of Health and Human Services will increase the supply of vaccines to states from 8.6 million to a minimum of 10 million doses per week. So far, states have received more than 49 million doses, but only about half of these have ended up in people’s arms, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency reports that the United States manages just over a million shots each day.
McClellan states that the United States should significantly increase the number of shots administered per day and “get our vaccination capacity closer to 3 million doses per day.”
The United States has ordered 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine, which the company plans to administer in June. J&J plans to apply for emergency use authorization next week. If the J&J vaccine is FDA-approved, it would be the third vaccine approved for emergency use in the U.S. Pfizer vaccine, the FDA approved it on Dec. 11, and Moderna’s was approved a week later.
The effectiveness figures for the J&J vaccine were lower than those for Pfizer and Moderna. The Pfizer vaccine was found to be 95% effective against the prevention of Covid-19, while that of Moderna was about 94% effective. The J&J vaccine was found to be 66% effective overall in preventing moderate to severe covids.
Host Shepard Smith asked McClellan about the lower efficacy figures compared to Pfizer and Modern, and explained to Smith that “today we are fighting a different virus than we were three months ago when previous tests were done.”
In addition, J&J conducted the test on three continents and the level of protection varied by region. Its vaccine showed an overall efficacy of 72% in the United States and 66% in Latin America. In South Africa, where Covid’s dangerous strain B.1.351 caused an increase in cases, the J&J vaccine was 57% effective.
“Unfortunately, we will probably fight a different virus in three months, so the most important thing to win this battle is to vaccinate as many people as possible,” McClellan said. “The faster we get gunshots, the more people we get vaccinated here in this country and around the world, the better we will be at containing this new spread and the more damage caused by Covid.”