With the arrival of more than 12,000 doses of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, San Bernardino County continues its efforts to vaccinate those who are eligible, including launching a concentrated effort to inoculate the county’s homeless population.
The county’s first vaccination event, specifically focused on unsheltered individuals, was held last Thursday in the city of San Bernardino. The single-dose vaccine has also been sent to several hospitals in the county. Managing editor Tami Roleff has more information about the effort and the vaccine…
Preventing transmission of the coronavirus in facilities such as homeless shelters is challenging, so vaccinating the homeless is a high priority for the county. County Board of Supervisors Chairman Curt Hagman said the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine offers advantages because it only requires a single dose, which makes it an ideal solution for inoculating hard-to-reach groups. The county has sent the J&J vaccine to Colorado River and mountain communities because the single-dose nature of the J&J vaccine is ideal for more-remote locations where ensuring timely second doses can be a challenge. The new vaccine is highly effective. The Food and Drug Administration found it to be 100 percent effective at preventing death from the disease, 85% effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and 72% effective at preventing moderate to severe disease. (By comparison, an annual flu shot is typically 50% to 60% effective.)
The new vaccine was developed using a different technological approach than that employed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which used what is called “mRNA” technology. Essentially, mRNA is a little piece of genetic code the vaccines deliver to a patient’s cells. The code serves as an instruction manual for the individual’s immune system, teaching it to recognize the virus that causes COVID-19 and attack it, should it ever encounter the real thing.
The J&J vaccine, on the other hand, employs a more traditional virus-based technology that uses a disabled adenovirus to deliver the instructions. The adenovirus — which is not related to the coronavirus and will not give one a viral infection— can deliver instructions to the cells on how to defeat the coronavirus.
A tremendous advantage of the J&J vaccine is, unlike the first two vaccines, it can be stored at normal refrigerator temperature and does not spoil quickly.
“The new vaccine is not only effective, but also can be quickly and easily administered to County residents — including those living in widely dispersed rural communities,” said Hagman. “It will play an invaluable role in helping us reduce illness and getting our lives back to normal.”
