According to Dr. Anthony Fauci, a Food and Drug Advisory panel concluded the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccination should have been a two-dose shot. It is now recommended that a booster shot be given once they are available.
Fauci said the decision by the panel was unanimous. While the booster shot is still waiting to be approved, the panel’s recommendation is usually followed by federal regulators. It is now recommended that all recipients of the J&J shot aged 18 and older receive a second dose as early as two months after the first.
“I think that they should feel good about it because what the advisors to the FDA felt is that given the data that they saw, very likely, this should have been a two-dose vaccine, to begin with,” Fauci said on ABC’s This Week.
When asked by host Martha Raddatz about mixing vaccines, Fauci admitted that antibody levels are higher when someone who received the J&J shot got a booster of Pfizer or Moderna.
“That is true, the data you refer to, that if you boost people who have originally received J&J with either Moderna or Pfizer, the level of antibodies that you induce in them is much higher than if you boost them with the original J&J,” Fauci told Raddatz.
He advises that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and FDA will allow people to choose whichever vaccine they want for a booster. However, they will have to until Pfizer and Moderna boosters become available to the general population.
It’s recommended that anyone who received the J&J jab get a booster as soon as possible.
