Mayor Lori Lightfoot said today she expects Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot coronavirus vaccine to arrive in Chicago in a day or two, and the city is ready to put the third option to immediate use.
Two days after the Food and Drug Administration cleared the J&J vaccine for emergency use, Lightfoot told reporters she’s chomping at the bit to take advantage of the one-and-done option it provides.
“We anticipate that it will be here, if not today, then tomorrow. I don’t have a firm lock on what the amount of doses is, so I don’t want to get ahead of myself. But we do expect it here this week,” the mayor said at a news conference on the gradual re-opening of Chicago Public Schools.
“We will put it to work as soon as we get it. CDPH has been preparing now for some time as we saw the Johnson & Johnson vaccine kind of moving through the regulatory approval process. And it gives us obviously another tool to use to get people vaccinated. So, we’re excited for that opportunity.”
Johnson & Johnson initially is providing a few million doses of its one-shot vaccine, with shipments to states expected to begin today. By the end of March, the pharmaceutical giant has said it expects to deliver 20 million doses, ramping up to 100 million doses by summer.
Vaccines manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna require two doses that are 95 percent protective against symptomatic COVID-19.
Johnson & Johnson’s one-and-done shot is 85 percent effective against severe COVID-19. In testing, it dropped to 66 percent when moderate cases of the coronavirus are added to the mix.