New York Times: Johnson & Johnson’s Vaccine Advances, Sparking Optimism in Race

Johnson & Johnson has recently announced that their vaccine has begun the third and final phase of clinical trials. They are the fourth company in the United States to do so. Their trial is larger than Moderna’s and Pfizer’s which will provide a better sense of the safety of the vaccine and reduce the time it takes to determine the vaccine’s effectiveness. The goal of the trial is to determine if the vaccine shows 60 percent efficacy after 164 patients develop Covid-19. Advantages of this vaccine, which uses an adenovirus to carry a gene into human cells, are that it could require just one shot instead of two and that it does not have to be kept frozen like competing vaccines. Johnson & Johnson reports it could know by the end of the year if the virus works, but it is important to remember that the time frame is contingent on many variables and cannot be guaranteed. To read the full article by Carl Zimmer and Katie Thomas published in The New York Times, click here.