175,000 Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Doses Expected In Florida

FLORIDA — With the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine receiving emergency-use authorization from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration Saturday, almost 200,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine should arrive in Florida this week.

The United States will receive nearly 4 million doses in its initial shipment, National Public Radio reported.

The J&J vaccine — which only requires one shot — joins two additional coronavirus vaccines on the market, which are produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, respectively. Both of those vaccines require two shots several weeks apart.

The question is, how many of these doses will find their way to Florida?

Gov. Ron DeSantis said he expects the Sunshine State will initially receive 175,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson brand vaccine this week.

“We don’t know for sure whether we will definitely get it this week, but we think we probably will,” the governor said at a Monday news conference. “We don’t know exactly how much, but tentatively, the numbers that we’re looking at for a Johnson & Johnson shipment to Florida this week is 175,000 doses.”

The announcement that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is likely headed to Florida comes as more than 7,000 new COVID-19 cases were reported Wednesday, according to state data.

This comes after a steep drop in new cases Monday, when around 1,800 were reported. The total number of new cases in Florida since the start of the pandemic hovers around 1.92 million with more than 31,000 deaths.

DeSantis signed an executive order Monday expanding eligibility for the vaccine to all K-12 school personnel, police officers and firefighters in the state who are 50 and older. This first Johnson & Johnson shipment could cover these groups, while allowing the state to “continue to put seniors first” with shipments of other brands, he said.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which is given in a single dose compared to the two-shot Pfizer and Moderna series will be “a real value added,” he said.

“You don’t have to come back for the booster, at least not within a short period of time, and it can be stored in a normal refrigerator,” DeSantis said. “It doesn’t require a negative 70 (degrees.) It doesn’t even require any type of freezing, so it’s much more versatile.”

The governor’s message for Floridians as this new vaccine becomes available “is if you have the opportunity to take the Johnson & Johnson, take the Johnson & Johnson. This stuff has been very good.”

He’s recently indicated that he plans to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine when he’s eligible.

“I’m just going to get one shot and be done,” DeSantis said at a February news conference.

In a clinical trial with around 39,000 participants, “the vaccine was approximately 67 (percent) effective in preventing moderate to severe/critical COVID-19 disease occurring at least 14 days after vaccination and 66 (percent) effective in preventing moderate to severe/critical disease at least 28 days after vaccination,” the FDA said.

It was also about 77 percent effective in preventing severe/critical COVID-19 cases in participants at least 14 days after they received the vaccine and 85 percent effective in preventing these severe/critical cases at least 28 days after vaccination, the FDA said.

“The clinical trials showed it prevents death, serious hospitalizations," and also reduces infections and “the potential for severe illness," DeSantis said.

He added, “That will absolutely save lives. That will reduce hospital admissions.”