Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) Vaccine

Well, the first one worked well enough anyway and the single dose was a huge speed boost for any programme. Be a surprise to see it be offered as a second/booster dose and mRNA would be more likely IMO. Not sure we will necessarily get to that stage anyway.

J & J is an intramuscular vaccine though?

Why should have it been a two shot? Where are you basing this from? Or do you just really enjoy taking shots.

Is the 2 shot trial the single dose twice or is the formulation different? Can you get a vaccine certificate for it?

Glad to see a thread on this. My mother is mid 60’s so recommended for a booster when the time comes, but got a Jannsen first time around.

She’s allergic to a preservative in the Pfizer vaccine. In the UK, they avoided giving Pfizer to people with this allergy but here they have no policy regarding that allergy. So she had to push to get a J&J from the HSE when her time came.

She’s very conscious of covid and still nervous about it, so I’d love to see her get a booster - but she can’t take the Pfizer. And there’s nothing out there about J&J recipients. The GP knows nothing about it either and can’t help. Limbo indeed!

I think Moderna is still available, the contract certainly has lots of deliveries left and their Swiss plant isn't that long online, I wonder if the time will come when some of the adenovector vaccines might be available privately. Other than that it's waiting for Novavax (and hoping they don't use the same preservative).

The fact that the HSE isn't listing it as an issue may indicate that the amount of the preservative is too small to be of issue for those allergic, but you really need a well trained doctor/consultant to make that determination (i.e. don't rely on the internet and that's understanding that it's hard to find some qualified to make that determination).

It was a single dose twice, 3 months apart.

I was able to get a vaccine cert, We had to kick up a fuss to get them at the beginning but it's essentially a letter saying we had an approved vaccine and I haven't had issues in the 4 countries I have visited. Most people just look to see if you have had a jab and that's all they care about. I had more questions getting into Ireland in May as I had just been unblinded and the vaccine passports were still an idea and I didn't have a vaccine card that they gave out as I wasn't told at the time what I had.

We are more likely to see an mRNA option offered instead and it depends how useful they think it is moving into the under 60s for boosters.

People aged 50-60 were given J & J in May, so they will be over 6 months any day now with only one jab, why do NIAC continue to delay and delay when it comes to peoples risk of covid? These people only have one JAB!

J & J and the FDA in America are now saying that J and J should be at least a 2 dose vaccine.

Wake up NIAC and please do your job.

I understand it will be an MRNA booster for anyone now in Ireland, NIAC have already authorized heterologous vaccine mixing.

You will have within 2 weeks a large cohort of people (50-60 year olds) who will be over 6 months with only 1 jab, that is my point.

Yeah, but they are far less likely to have the same risk levels as far older or more at risk people. The aim is to get them to those who need them.

RTE reporting this morning that if you got Janssen 1 shot vaccine and you are in an eliagble group for boosters (over 50 and vulnerable cohorts) you should get the booster (Pfizer or Moderna) 3 months after your 1st jab.

Still not clear if one would get a text from HSE, or seek one from GP/vac centre, or pharmacist.

On an interesting note Phillip Nolan on NPET is in this 50-60 group who got Janssen 1 shot vaccine and is now passing the 6 month mark. Although he didnt say if he has been boosted yet.

The mother got hers from the HSE in June. And got a text last week with an appointment for Pfizer. She declined (as mentioned earlier in this thread, she's allergic to a preservative in the pfizer). She's going to try to get a second dose of J&J privately, speaking to her GP about this first. If I hear anything of use, I'll share it here.

The MVCs are using Moderna, not Pfizer... do you know if the additive is in Moderna?

If you do get to speak to GP \ pharmacist they can advise on that perhaps.

I (think) the additive of concern is PEG and it's implied that it's in Moderna too. I believe it's in some forms of Penicillin and this is where the allergy (anaphylaxis) was first discovered due to the reaction.

The HSE website advice seems to say that if you've got an allergy to PEG than you shouldn't get either of the mRNA vaccines. (https://www2.hse.ie/screening-and-vaccinations/covid-19-vaccine/pfizer-biontech/safety/). The advice varies country to country, too. Some say go for it, some say don't. For example, this is from the CDC website:

It's a real shame that there's no choice over kind of vaccine anymore in Ireland for people like this, since there seems to be this narrative that the J&J isn't any use now if you've only had one shot and no booster.