UK authorizes J&J COVID-19 vaccine as virus cases edge up
Fox News
British government regulators on Friday authorized another coronavirus vaccine for use in the U.K. amid concerns about rising COVID-19 cases as a variant of the virus first identified in India spreads around the country.
The authorization takes the number of vaccines in the U.K.’s armory to four following earlier approvals for the two-dose regimens developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, and Moderna. The regulator said the vaccine developed by J&J subsidiary Janssen has been shown to be 67% effective overall in preventing COVID-19 infection and 85% effective in preventing severe disease or hospitalization. It can be be stored at refrigerator temperatures of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius (36 to 47 F), which the regulator said makes it "ideal for distribution to care homes and other locations." Details of which groups will get the vaccine have yet to be determined. There was speculation it might only be administered to older adults after it was linked to reports of rare blood clots.More Related News