J&J COVID Vaccine Issues May Delay Widespread Distribution: Fauci

NEW JERSEY — COVID-19 vaccine doses from New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson may now be coming later than expected, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci. The change could effectively delay widespread vaccine distribution to mid-to-late May or early June, he said.

"If we are talking about when the vaccine would be more widely available to the general population, I was hoping that would be by the end of April," said Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert, during an interview with CNN. "That was predicated on J&J having considerably more product than we know now they are going to have. That timeline probably will be prolonged until maybe mid-to-late May or early June."

On Feb. 4, Johnson & Johnson had filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency-use authorization of its single-dose coronavirus vaccine, developed by its subsidiary Janssen Biotech Inc.

"Johnson & Johnson intends to distribute vaccine to the U.S. government immediately following authorization, and expects to supply 100 million doses to the U.S. in the first half of 2021, per our agreement with the U.S. government," said a Johnson & Johnson spokesman. "The company expects to have product available to ship immediately following authorization."

With the prolonged arrival date, Fauci said, vaccines are most likely to be "widely available in May but might be into June, July and August before most people are vaccinated."

"So when you hear about how long is it going to take to get the overwhelming proportion of the population vaccinated, I don't think anybody disagrees that that's going to be well into the end of the summer and we get into the early fall," said Fauci.

Gov. Phil Murphy said the state's timeline to have 70 percent of adults vaccinated within the next six months is still on track despite the recent Johnson & Johnson news.

"I think we said here a number of times — even putting aside the J&J reality — the prior federal administration had left the cupboard a lot barer than indicted and the Biden administration is making great progress. That is still very much the case. But the six-month window is still, plus or minus, right," Murphy said during his news conference Thursday.

"I don't think the public expectation is too high," Murphy said.

Health Commissioner Judith M. Persichilli noted that more than 1 million New Jersey residents have already gotten their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and 2.5 million residents are preregistered and waiting in line for their vaccines.

"If you give us the vaccine, we could easily get to 3.5 million people in a short period of time if we had the vaccine," Persichilli said.

Murphy has said the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine would be a game-changer in the battle against the coronavirus. That's because it only requires one shot instead of two, and also does not require such cold storage temperatures. It can be stored in temperatures similar to a household refrigerator.

Read More: Johnson & Johnson COVID Shot May Be Less Protective Than Others

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