The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is designed with a non-replicating adenovirus vector, so that's a DNA
vaccine, but it delivers the exact same thing as the mRNA vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which is,
it's the genetic code for our own bodies to manufacture the spike protein and then we have
an immune response against that spike protein, which makes us immune to infection.
The vaccine has less stringent cold storage requirements and so that means it's more
likely to be available at doctor's offices and certainly in rural areas of northern California
that may have limited ultra cold freezer capacity, so that's good news for more availability and the
other main difference is it's just one dose, so the other two vaccines are two dose series, either
three or four weeks apart, so one dose makes it that much simpler to get everybody vaccinated.
So i wouldn't focus in on the efficacy numbers, that's just a point estimate and if you look
at those numbers and the statistics, they're not statistically different from the other numbers
from the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines and also remember that we're comparing
apples and oranges because these vaccines were studied at different time periods in different
populations in different geographic locations with different circulating strains and so therefore you
can't really compare the two. All the vaccines, all three vaccines are highly effective and I
would have no qualms about taking any one of them. I don't have a preference for any of the vaccines
and the CDC specifically has said they don't have any preference for any of the vaccines.
All three vaccines have a very similar side effect profile. There's one difference, which
is since this is just a one dose vaccine, you're only going to have those side
effects after the first dose and not after the second dose as with the other vaccines.
We know we still don't have enough vaccines available to
give them, to vaccinate everybody that we would like to, so having more vaccines, more
vaccine manufacturers, mean that we're going to have a more steady supply of vaccine and
more vaccine availability. We'll be able to vaccinate more people, get immunity sooner and
then we'll all be able to have decreased risk of transmission in the community and open up sooner.