New data shows that two shots given two months apart resulted in 94% protection against symptomatic disease.
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breaking news from johnson and johnson the company announcing new results from its booster trials and the report shows a second shot of its vaccine dramatically increases protection for the millions of americans who got the j j shot this is all happening as they have been waiting for the news abc’s eva pilgrim has more this morning johnson and johnson out with new data saying that adding a second shot for its one dose vaccine does help boost immune response potentially paving the way for an additional shot for the 14 million plus people who got that vaccine this is very good news this shows that a second shot of the jnj vaccine really substantially improves protection jnj saying its vaccine is still working well to prevent hospitalizations but new data shows that two shots given two months apart resulted in 94 percent protection against symptomatic disease almost identical to peak effectiveness for moderna and pfizer however earlier data finding that waiting six months after the first dose provided even higher antibody levels these data still need to be reviewed by the regulatory authorities and the ultimate deployment of jnj boosters remains to be determined but what we know now is much more science millions of americans who got the pfizer vaccine could get booster shots starting by the end of the week if the fda and cdc sign off on recommending boosters six months after their second shot for high priority groups meaning those 65 and older those at high risk of severe disease and front line workers like health care professionals and teachers who are at higher risk of exposure on monday the u.s coronavirus death toll surpassing a grim milestone more than that of the 1918 flu pandemic one two three now after pfizer announced a decreased dose of their vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 through 11. it will apply for authorization for that age group starting at the end of the month if that process moves like it did for the older groups there could be shots and arms for millions of children in elementary school by halloween and it’s important to know now that vaccines are widely available kaiser reporting that most private insurers have stopped waiving those out of pocket costs for treating covet even more are supposed to make that move by the end of october kira all right eva pilgrim thank you so much well let’s bring in chief innovation officer at boston children’s hospital and abc news medical contributor for more on this breaking johnson johnson report dr brownstein good morning good to see you yeah you too cara all right so if the johnson johnson booster did get approved it could give an additional shot to more than 14 million people who got the j j vaccine so how would that affect the number of breakthrough cases for those that did get that vaccine and and what does this new data from johnson johnson tell us you know this is really exciting news here i mean we have millions of americans that got that j j shot and have been waiting for the path what is the next step will they need another dose and what we’re seeing here is that that second shot given two months after the primary dose had real impact 94 percent against symptomatic disease 100 percent against severe illness and when you look into antibodies it was about a four-fold increase and so it really shows that it could have a significant impact on breakthrough cases and this is data that’s not surprising because this the two-shot regime is what we have already for the mrna and i should mention that they also have data on six months and in fact six months looks even better and so longer wait times between those shots actually could improve response and it add in that additional protection and so at this point i think we have you know a growing body of evidence that a second shot is gonna be important now it’s gonna be up to the fda to figure out when and how that happens okay you just mentioned the people who got the jj shot more than six months ago any reason to be concerned you know not at all i mean the single shot is still showing incredible protection immunity is not waning but you know that additional shot could help but immunity is not a cliff at six months it doesn’t just drop off we know that you know potentially eight months could be better and so we have to see the data you know the data from jj was by press release we have to see more of it fda will make a decision but everyone should still be reassured that these vaccines are working well for what matters which is severe illness and death but that additional shock could be helpful for the future you know the u.s surpassed that grim milestone uh yesterday the death uh covid death toll topping more than that of the 1918 flu pandemic a year and a half into this pandemic what does that say about how this time will be remembered and looked at in history yeah you know it’s it’s it’s amazing to me that you know if you had asked me in 2019 if this would be the deadliest pandemic in american history there’s no way that i would have told you that and unfortunately that with all the medical achievements and vaccines we have we are seeing you know an incredible death toll and i think unfortunately we’re going to see some lessons learned you know a lack of acceptance on basic things like social distancing and masking you know a false sense of security among the young and of course you know reliance on unproven treatments and this is unfortunate because at the same time we’ve had amazing science you know treatments that have come a vaccine that is beyond what we could have expected 1918 they didn’t have any access this they would have all you know hoped for a miracle treatment which we have and so on one hand we’re going to see you know incredible science on the other hand it will be looked at as somewhat of a botched response yeah well there is some uplifting news why don’t i take us there pfizer actually announced a decreased dose of their vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5-11 we’ve been talking a lot about this now you work at a children’s hospital what does this news mean to you and also what are you saying to parents who may be hesitant to get their children at that age vaccinated if it does get approved yeah no this is really exciting because of course for me at a pediatric institution this is all what we’re hoping for for our patients i also have a 10 and 11 year old i am excited for them to get the vaccine when it’s approved and this is in a time when we’re seeing the most numbers of kids in hospital so this vaccine can’t come soon enough but you know we’re hearing different time frames you know the fda still has yet to receive the data and they want to be incredibly deliberate they want to look at the data and we should all expect you have to take the time to make sure that that risk benefit is there and you know so they’re going to take the time they need it could happen end of october but it could also happen later in the fall i think for parents i think they should be reassured that the fda is the stop gap here that is going to make sure that this vaccine works well and we’re hearing signs that it’s effective and it’s safe and you know making sure that that risk benefit is super clear so yes there are a lot of parents that are in that wait and see category maybe you know up to 40 right now which makes sense you know they have to see the data they have to be reassured and they have to have important conversations with their pediatricians but i fully expect that these vaccines will be safe and effective and finally all our kids will see that vaccine like their adult counterparts already have that’s such good news well not only are you our our abc doctor you are also part of our abc news live family and we want to wish you a very happy birthday dr brownstein thank you for always answering our questions getting us through the pandemic uh you like this uh yes this is in reference to the pillow that always sits behind you on your couch the fouchy gang you are the brownstein gang here happy birthday so what are you gonna do to celebrate i don’t know probably maybe not read coven news for a few hours there you go we’ll have a beautiful day we sure appreciate you john appreciate it so much all right hi everyone george stephanopoulos here thanks for checking out the abc news youtube channel if you’d like to get more videos show highlights and watch live event coverage click on the right over here to subscribe to our channel and don’t forget to download the abc news app for breaking news alerts thanks for watching
