Johnson & Johnson vaccine effective against Delta, Beta variants – Prof Glenda Gray
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is effective against the Delta and Beta Covid-19 variants, according to one of the country’s leading health experts.
The president and CEO of the SA Medical Research Council, Professor Glenda Gray, was part of a briefing on Friday morning to update the country on government’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
“The Johnson & Johnson vaccine works better against Delta and gets better over time with both Delta and Beta, which are of concern,” she said,.
Gray added that there is no need for a booster shot as the immune response generated by the vaccine showed durability.
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“You can see that the single shot of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is comparable to the two doses. So the single shot works just as well over the two doses. So right up to eight months we can say that we have durable responses as measured with people we have followed over time.”
South Africa, which is the hardest hit country on the African continent, is as a result battling a third wave of infections.
Delta, which was first identified in India, is the dominant variant.
The new variant has also been attributed to surging Covid-19 numbers in Gauteng, although it has spread to other provinces.
