hey guys welcome to another video this one's going to be on the johnson johnson or jansen
vaccine for covid 19. so there's a study called the ensemble trial it was a randomized
double-blind placebo-controlled phase 3 study meaning that thousands of patients were enrolled
and it assessed the safety and efficacy of the vaccine now unlike the pfizer/bioentech and
moderna vaccines which are mrna vaccines the johnson and johnson vaccine is a recombinant
vector meaning it takes another virus in this case an adenovirus and then modifies that virus
so that it can't cause infection in the body but it can still deliver what it's supposed to deliver
and in this case it's delivering the genetic code for a portion of the stars cov2 virus
specifically the genetic code that codes for the spike protein of the virus now one of the
huge advantages of this vaccine is that it's a single dose the other big advantage of this
vaccine is that it can remain stable for two years at negative 20 degrees celsius which is
negative four degrees fahrenheit also at least three months of which can be at temperatures of
2 to 8 degrees celsius which is 36 to 46 degrees fahrenheit why is this significant because
that means unlike the mrna vaccines regular refrigeration will suffice for mass distribution
so how effective is this vaccine well in the ensemble trial which enrolled over 43000 people
age 18 and older not only from the united states but also latin america
and south africa about 1% of patients enrolled in the study developed covid 19. it was 66%
effective at preventing moderate and severe covid by day 28 after vaccination among all participants
including in those who lived in regions with the new emerging viral variant such as the p1 variant
in brazil in the b1351 variant in south africa protection against sars coV 2 was greatest in
the united states at 72 percent in worst in south africa at 57% about 95% of those in the trial who
developed covid 19 in south africa were found to have been infected with the b1351 variant that
variant has been found to have some resistance to antibodies that were generated as a result of
previous infections or previous vaccination within the b1351 variant the e484k mutation has appeared
sporadically in multiple samples for months but until recently it didn't appear to offer
the virus any advantage in populations with no pre-existing immunity but it's a different story
in places like south africa where many people had been previously infected in south africa there has
been a very high rate of reinfection to the point where previous infection does not seem to protect you
so how much does this vaccine protect against severe disease it was 85% effective in all regions
by day 28 and there were no cases of severe covid 19 after day 49 so does this mean that the johnson
and johnson vaccine is 100 percent effective at preventing severe covid 19 by day 49 well we're
only going to know for sure with time and once the full data from the study becomes available
now it's also worth noting that no one who received the johnson and johnson vaccine
were hospitalized with covid or died within 28 days of getting the vaccine
now being able to prevent severe disease in a high percentage of people that's going to have a
significant impact on alleviating the devastation from this virus so how safe is this vaccine
serious adverse events meaning side effects were rare with more participants in the placebo group
reporting adverse events compared to the vaccine group this implies that some of the adverse events
reported by patients in the placebo arm may have contracted actual covid disease the overall
rates of fever were 9 and the percentage of people who developed high fevers meaning grade
3 fevers defined as greater than 39 degrees celsius or more than 102.1 degrees fahrenheit
that was 0.2 percent so johnson and johnson will soon be filing for emergency use authorization in
the united states probably this week this comes just in the nick of time because we have to have
mass vaccination as quickly as possible before these new variants become the dominant strain
because if that happens the consequences could entail ineffective antibody protection
which means we would take a giant step backwards in getting this pandemic under control
most americans who are willing to wear masks and practice distancing
are already doing so and most people who are not willing to do these things well it's unlikely that
they're going to change their ways so far about 450 000 americans have died as a result of covid
even if the entire population started doing everything right meaning wearing masks and
distancing we're still likely to see over 100 000 deaths over the next three months so realistically
we're much more likely to see way more than 100 000 people die over the next three months
so it's a race against time it's not just about saving lives it's also about getting as many
shots in arms as possible before the new variants become the dominant strain because if that happens
then we're all going to be taking a huge step backwards so that's all i have for this video
thanks for watching and if you haven't done so already click on that subscribe button hit that
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