NORWOOD, Mass. — On an already beautiful day at the Norwood Senior Center, there’s another reason to elevate spirits: news that a third vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, could soon be added to the U.S arsenal.
For Kerri McCarthy, executive director at the Norwood Council on Aging, it’s simple: it may mean lives improve for seniors and it happens faster.
“They have been isolated for a year now. It is time for them to get back to living, to see their grandchildren, to be with their friends. As one senior simply put it, to go buy their own bananas […] so think of it in terms like that, how simple it is,” McCarthy said.
That decision that could come with Friday’s FDA review panel. If approved, it’s possibly a game-changer in the trajectory and timeline for mass vaccinations.
Related: Coronavirus: Johnson & Johnson vaccine has ‘favorable safety profile,’ FDA briefing documents say
“We will have several million doses ready to ship on the day of approval, but they’ve committed at least 20 million doses during March and 100 million doses by June,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, the director of the Center for Virology & Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dr. Barouch was part of the team that developed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. It was tested in areas hard hit by COVID-19 variants, like Latin America and South Africa.
“In South Africa, over 95% of the circulating virus is the most worrisome resistant variant, and in Brazil, approximately 70% of the virus are the resistant variants. These variants are circulating in the U.S. now. Protection was very good, specifically against severe disease including against these variants, so that’s very good news,” Dr. Barouch said.
Even better news in Norwood for McCarthy would be if some vaccine doses were sent to local communities.
“I would love see Gov. Baker say, ‘ok, tell us how many you need, and we’ll send them your way,’” McCarthy said.
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