J&J ‘in talks’ to start Covid-19 booster shot trial in SA
The South African Medical Research Council president Professor Glenda Gray says Sisonke teams are in discussion with Johnson & Johnson to begin the Covid-19 booster shot trial in the country.
Millions of frontline workers received their Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine under the Sisonke Covid-19 vaccine trial.
Gray says the boosts are meant to extend the vaccine’s durability.
“The Sisonke team are investigating various boosts for a single shot vaccine that people received early on this year especially health care workers. We know the vaccine is durable for up to around eight to nine months.
“We have been investigating boosting this regiment using other vaccines or using the Pfizer vaccine so we are going to be investigating various regiments.
“People will be invited to participate in a study if they want to volunteer (for different boosts) so we will be able to follow up with people who received various boosts to see which is the most optimal boost and how these vaccines work together,” says Gray.
Gray warns the boosters might be a frequent need in future.
“We are not too sure how often one will need a booster, it’s like having an annual flu vaccine. We are hoping in the future if you need a booster it’s on an annual basis and not too frequent but at this stage, we are not sure of how often people will require boosts.”
They are hoping to start the trial in October.
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