PEMBROKE PARK, Fla. – On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration cleared a Johnson & Johnson vaccine that works with just one dose instead of two and Florida’s Governor said it could be arriving in the state as early as next week.
“If all goes to plan, you should start seeing Johnson & Johnson next week,” DeSantis said.
The FDA issued Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for the single-dose COVID-19 vaccine to prevent COVID-19 in individuals 18 years of age and older.
DeSantis said Thursday during an appearance in Fort Pierce that when it is his “turn” he will want the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
“I’m just going to get one shot and be done,” he said, stating that at 42-years-old he is at “the back of the line” for receiving any COVID-19 vaccine. At this time in Florida, vaccine is available for:
- Persons 65 years of age and older.
- Health care personnel with direct patient contact.
- Residents and staff of long-term care facilities.
- People deemed extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 by hospital providers.
According to Johnson & Johnson, it has begun shipping its COVID-19 vaccine and expects to deliver enough single-shot vaccines by the end of March to enable the full vaccination of more than 20 million people in the U.S.
It plans to deliver 100 million single-shot vaccines to the U.S. during the first half of 2021.
The U.S. government will manage allocation and distribution of the vaccine in the U.S. This will be prioritized according to the populations identified by the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) guidelines, according to a statement from the company.
Dr. Corey Frederick, an infectious diseases clinical pharmacist with Memorial Regional Hospital, said the new one dose vaccine has proven effective against some of the newer variants. And is better than no protection at all.
He said the goal behind a third vaccine, the one-dose option, is getting more people protected quickly, and to help prevent more variants from popping up.
“If we truly want to end this pandemic, if we want to return safely back to our normal lives, we are going to have to vaccinate as many people as possible in as short amount of time as possible,” Frederick said.