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As US approves Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, Biden warns Americans

WION Web Team
Washington, United StatesUpdated: Feb 28, 2021, 01:03 PM IST
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Joe Biden, Johnson & Johnson Photograph:(Others)

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'This is exciting news for all Americans, and an encouraging development in our efforts to bring an end to the crisis,' Biden said

On Saturday, the US authorised Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine for emergency use, making it the third approved vaccine of the county since the outbreak of COVID-19 a year ago.

The main attraction of Johnson & Johnson's coronavirus vaccine is that it is a single-shot vaccine, unlike Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca which are administered in two parts.

This single-shot vaccine is, reportedly, highly effective against the deadly coronavirus, and also works as a guard against the new variants of COVID-19.

President Joe Biden took this opportunity to address the nation and share the happy news. "This is exciting news for all Americans, and an encouraging development in our efforts to bring an end to the crisis," he said.

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However, he was also mindful to urge people to exercise caution and not assume that the pandemic is over, as the death toll due to the virus in the country has been on a constant rise.

"But we cannot let our guard down now or assume that victory is inevitable," he warned.

The emergency approval of the Johnson & Johnson's vaccine has come as a piece of welcome news as it is being predicted to be a great help in ramping up the immunisation process in the country which has lost more than 500,000 people to this deadly virus.

In the clinical trials, the efficacy of this vaccine against the deadly virus was 85.9 per cent in the United States, 81.7 per cent in South Africa, and 87.6 per cent in Brazil.

Questions and concerns have been raised about the efficacy of this vaccine as the vaccine were, overall, 85.4 per cent effective in a study of 39,321 participants, with the efficacy decreasing to 66.1 per cent when the moderate forms of the disease were included.