03/03/2021
Today I'd like to talk to you about a new vaccine that's just been approved, which is the Johnson and Johnson and Janssen joint venture. And this is a COVID-19 or SARS Cov 2 vaccine that's a single dose or single injection, which is an advantage over the two previous ones that required two injections. And it also is favorable in terms of storage in terms of not needing a deep freezer and maybe more convenient and other ways. We first tell you a little bit about what the mechanism of this one is compared to the others. So the way this one works is it's a real ad no virus, meaning it's actually a virus. That's the vector, what uses it to deliver into your body or get into your body, and it takes a virus but makes it relatively inactive in the sense that it's not going to be causing the flu or some other type of significant symptoms, but it's using the machinery of the adenovirus to deliver into the body and into the cells, and what's happened is that the actual DNA is manipulated so that a strand is inserted and this strand has the spike protein. So I can illustrate this for you. And what happens is that this gets placed in DNA machinery or the virus. Then you get inoculated or injected, and then your body incorporates this into the cells similar to like the Pfizer BioNtech and Moderna vaccine descriptions that I've given before, so it gets into the cell ribosomes decipher after messenger RNA is made from the DNA. And then the spike protein is made and then you make antibodies, the humoral response from the B cells and making antibodies and also a T cell response as well. So, this is the difference between Pfizer Biotech, and the Moderna in that this is a DNA based, and it's an agonal virus, and I've just lifted by a layer that gets into the cells, and it's also single injection which is a major difference and we'll talk a little bit about differences as well. So comparing the three, the efficacy of the Pfizer BioNtech, and Moderna vaccines were 95% and 94% respectively in terms of avoiding significant or severe disease death or hospitalization. But you have to recall that at the time that Pfizer and the Moderna were available there were fewer variants than we have now, namely, the UK variant, the South African variant, and the Brazilian variant at this time. Looking at Johnson and Johnson, efficacy is about 66% overall. But you have to break down the numbers a little bit further in that in the United States, the numbers, where there's less variation was 72% advocacy. And there's like I said less variance here in terms of the South African and Brazilian varieties, and in Latin America than in Brazil particularly. There's 66% efficacy and that's even with the Brazilian variant, and in South Africa where there's a prevalence of their specific variation of to 95% prevalence. There was 57% efficacy so even though they had this different variation of the original source code. there was still efficacy at 57%. Well, initially these numbers don't look as good as the others in terms of 94 and 95%. You can see over time though the data suggests that things get better over time and you make more antibodies as your body becomes more responsive, in the sense that, on day 28 there's 85% efficacy in terms of preventing any severe cold and that means hospitalization and death which is something that you want a vaccine to be able to do. On day 49, or 49 days after the vaccination or inoculation and this is a single dose inoculation, there was 100% efficacy in preventing severe COVID, death, and hospitalization. So again, over time by day 49, the vaccine becomes very effective in that severe COVID, death, or hospitalization is avoided. Even in Brazil and South Africa where these variants, as I showed you in terms of preventing any symptoms of COVID relatively lowered the severe reactions were avoided. So it's interesting to know that also that the adverse effects were actually lower in the people that receive the vaccinations versus the placebo. And this is a single shot as well so it doesn't need special refrigeration. And there are actually potentially fewer side effects from the vaccine itself, although there was not a direct comparison, the others. And the other thing is that Johnson. Johnson has shown a commitment to making this a cost-effective option in the sense that they're trying to make this a nonprofit venture, as per their printouts and website. So this is another option I think that will greatly help expand the rollout and the options for people to get a vaccine. If you have other questions about functional medicine and how it can help you with immune resiliency, brain health, and gut health, call us at 925-736-9828, email info@jeffreymarkmd.com, or visit our website at www.allfunctionalhealth.com. Thank you. Take care, and stay healthy.
Jeffrey Mark, MD
Quadruple Board Certified Functional and Regenerative Medicine Gastroenterology Specialist
