Two major vaccines got emergency authorization for use in the US early on: one from Pfizer, and another from Moderna. These two vaccines share a lot of characteristics in common, including their efficacy and the ways they have to be stored and administered. Those two vaccines, while highly effective at preventing serious illness from COVID-19, are complicated to transport and store.
This is because they have to be stored at freezing temperatures to keep their potency. Should they fall below freezing, they become unusable and worthless. This, in turn, makes the supply chain of distributing these types of vaccines much more difficult, especially in developing countries with less access to cold storage for the vaccines.
This Is a Problem
This poses a serious problem for the global health crisis. The main issue here is that, it’s not good enough for just developed countries to get vaccinated. If underdeveloped regions remain unvaccinated, and the pandemic becomes an epidemic just in those regions, there are serious issues posed for global health. A virus spreading unchecked through a population is a nightmare for the people living there, as well as a huge hazard for the entire world.
Every time a virus infects a new host, it gets a chance to replicate a few million more times. Each of those replications carries the chance of mutation. Most mutations are worthless and result in the mutated viral strain simply dying off harmlessly. However, every few billion mutations happens upon a much more effective virus, by chance. This is, in essence, evolution at an insanely fast pace.
Those advantageous mutations become variants of the virus. Some variants can be more infectious, others more deadly. In any case, the more a vaccine is transmitted, the more chances it has to become even more effective.
Johnson and Johnson Vaccine
This is why the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is such a big deal. The newly-approved vaccine is single-dose, instead of two-dose based, and it only requires refrigeration to keep. This allows it to be distributed to a much wider global population. And, while it isn’t quite as effective at preventing serious illness, it is significantly better than no protection at all. This, in turn, allows it to be much more feasible of a way of inoculating much of the world’s population against the deadly disease.
This is why the J&J vaccine is so important for ending the pandemic. The end is in sight: now it’s time to push through to brighter days.
