FRIDAY, June 11, 2021 (HealthDay News) – U.S. regulators have extended the expiration date for millions of Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine doses by six weeks, the company said Thursday.
A review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration found the shots to remain safe and effective for at least 4 1/2 months, J&J said in a statement. In February, the FDA first approved the vaccine for up to three months when stored at normal refrigerated temperatures.
State officials warned earlier this week that many stored J&J cans would expire before the end of the month. The FDA change gives health care providers more time to use syringes in pharmacies, hospitals and clinics, the Associated Press reported. Many states have taken a “first-in-first-out” approach to using their oldest vaccines first.
Vaccine expiration dates are based on information from drug manufacturers about how long the vaccines will remain viable. According to J&J, the FDA has extended six weeks based on data from the company’s ongoing studies on the vaccine’s stability.
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The FDA has reviewed the expiration dates of all three vaccines approved in this country as companies have continued to test batches in the months since the vaccines were first introduced. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines approved in December have a six-month shelf life, the AP reported.
Unfortunately, vaccination rates have declined in recent weeks: the country had an average of around 800,000 new injections a day last week. That’s a decrease from a high of nearly 2 million daily shots two months ago, the AP reported. Government officials and corporations have turned to incentives to encourage shots, including paid time off and $ 1 million lottery winnings.
With vaccinations slowing, Biden’s goal of partially vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4 is at risk. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 64% of Americans over 18 had had at least one injection by Friday.
J & J’s vaccine was eagerly awaited because of its unique formulation and easy-to-ship refrigeration. The shot should play a key role in vaccination campaigns in rural areas and low-income countries with limited health care, the AP reported.
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But competing drug makers Pfizer and Moderna have already shipped more than enough doses to meet US demand. More than 129 million Americans were fully vaccinated with the companies’ two-dose shots, the AP reported. Only 11 million Americans have now been vaccinated with the J&J shot. About 10 million more J&J cans have been shipped to states, according to the CDC.
The use of the J&J vaccine also appears to have been affected by links to a rare blood clot disease. This problem caused US health officials to “pause” the use of the shot for 11 days. That ban was lifted in late April after officials concluded that the vaccine’s benefits outweigh the risks.
G-7 pledges the US to send vaccine doses to countries in need
The leaders of the G-7, the world’s richest democracies, are expected to promise 1 billion doses of COVID vaccines to poor and middle-income countries by the end of the year as part of a campaign to “vaccinate the world” on Friday to be sent in 2022.
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President Joe Biden announced Thursday that the United States plans to purchase 500 million doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine, which it will then donate to countries in need around the world. As for the rest of the G-7, the UK will donate 100 million cans while other members of the G-7 will contribute the rest, the AP reported.
“This is about our responsibility, our humanitarian obligation to save as many lives as possible,” said Biden on Thursday evening in a speech in England before the start of the G-7 meeting. “When we see people hurt and suffering all over the world, we do our best to help.”
The United States will ship the first of its 200 million donated cans this year, with 300 million more to be shared in the first half of next year, three people familiar with the plan told the Washington Post on Wednesday. COVAX, the World Health Organization-supported initiative to spread COVID-19 doses around the world, will distribute the doses to low and middle income countries.
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Many public health experts and advocacy groups cheered the news, saying that US leadership on the issue will be critical to vaccinating the world.
“It’s an extraordinary development,” Jennifer Nuzzo, epidemiologist and senior scientist at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in Baltimore, told the Post. The plan “sends a profound signal of US commitment to global health security and a readiness to help end this pandemic for the world and the United States,” she added.
“It makes sense, but it is not enough on its own,” said Thomas Bollyky, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and director of its global health program.
On the one hand, 500 million cans are about six times as many cans as COVAX has distributed so far, he told the Post. On the other hand, it’s only a quarter of the 2 billion doses that COVAX plans to distribute this year. So far, COVAX has delivered almost 82 million cans to 129 countries, the newspaper said.
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“These Pfizer cans will go to many countries,” said Bollyky. “The big question is, in what order and how much? That will have a significant impact on how the commitment affects public health.”
The gap between vaccine owners and have-nots is wide: more than half of the population in the United States and Britain have received at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine, while less than 2 percent of people in Africa have received a vaccination.
“We won’t end this global pandemic anywhere if we don’t defeat it everywhere,” said Tom Hart, acting CEO of One Campaign, an organization focused on fighting global poverty and preventable diseases, in a statement. “Donating cans to COVAX will save lives, reduce the spread of variants and help reopen the world economy. We urge other G-7 countries to follow the US lead and donate more cans to COVAX. Ambition and action to end the pandemic, it is now. “
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