Johnson & Johnson booster offers strong protection against omicron, study finds

by Rachel Scully - 12/30/21 7:55 AM ET

People who receive a second dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination are shown to be well protected against the omicron variant, a South African study found.

Research from the South African Medical Research Council found that levels of protection against COVID-19 rose in the following weeks after receiving the booster, even after the surge of the easily transmissible omicron variant.

After a booster dose was given to those who previously received the J&J vaccine, it was shown to prevent 85 percent of hospitalizations in those who had received the second jab one to two months ago, an increase from 63 percent for those who had got their booster within the past two weeks.

The findings are critical as the J&J vaccine is the prominent one in Africa.

Johnson & Johnson released the study results, but they will be submitted to a preprint server and a peer-reviewed journal, CNN noted.

“This [study] adds to our growing body of evidence which shows that the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine remains strong and stable over time, including against circulating variants such as Omicron and Delta,” Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development for Janssen, said in a statement. “We believe that the protection could be due to the robust T-cell responses induced by the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, these data suggest that Omicron is not affecting the T-cell responses generated by our vaccine.”

Researchers called the findings reassuring and indicated that the vaccines could help protect against the worst infections.

“Even before you factor in the increased infectiousness of Omicron, we have to remember that healthcare workers on the frontlines are at a greatly increased risk of being affected by COVID-19 in the first place,” Glenda Gray, the lead researcher and president of the South African Medical Research Council, said in a statement, according to CNN.

“We are therefore encouraged to see that boosting with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine regimen provides strong protection in a challenging real-world setting where there is an elevated risk of exposure — not just to COVID-19, but to the highly transmissible omicron variant.”