Data from a South African clinical trial suggest that a single dose of Covid-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson can prevent severe illness and death caused by the Delta and Beta coronavirus variants.This is the first time that vaccines have been tested against Delta, a highly contagious strain of the virus that has been sweeping the United States and most of the rest of the world. These preliminary results were presented by the South African Ministry of Health at a press conference on Friday. These data are not yet peer-reviewed and published in a scientific journal.Sisonke was a trial that evaluated the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on nearly 500,000 health workers who are high-risk for Covid-19. Researchers reported that the vaccine is effective against the Delta variant of Covid-19, with a 95% mortality rate and a 71% hospitalization rate. The vaccine performed slightly less well against the Beta variant. This is because it is more capable of avoiding the immune response.According to Dr. Linda-Gail Bekker (co-lead of this study and director of Desmond Tutu H.I.V.), we believe that the vaccine is accomplishing what it was intended to do. The University of Cape Town.
