A third vaccine for the COVID-19 virus has been approved by the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as the Center for Disease Control (CDC), authorized Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot COVID-19 vaccine on February 28. CNN stated the authorization begins the rollout of millions of doses of a third effective vaccine that could reach millions of Americans by early next week.

According to the New York Times, the announcement came at a critical moment, as the decline of the Coronavirus cases seems to have plateaued and millions of Americans are on the waiting lists for shots. Johnson & Johnson has pledged to provide the United States with 100 million doses by the end of June this year. When combined with the 600 million two dose vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which are set to arrive by the end of July, there will be more than enough shots to cover any American adult who wants one. 

Federal and state health officials are concerned that even with strong data to support it, some people think of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as an inferior option. The vaccine has a 72% efficacy rate in the US, which falls short of the roughly 95% rate found in studies testing the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines.

Dr, Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said in an interview on February 28, “Don’t get caught up, necessarily, on the number game, because it’s a really good vaccine, and what we need is as many good vaccines as possible. Rather than parsing the difference between 94 and 72, accept the fact that now you have 3 highly effective vaccines. Period.” (Interview) There have been 14,752 deaths in Ohio, according to COVID Ohio.