By the end of June 50-55 million doses for the EU / Only one vaccination needed, good effect against British, South African and Brazilian virus mutation / By the end of summer, not only 70% but 100% of adults can be vaccinated

Today, the vaccine manufacturer Johnson & Johnson will begin with the shipment of its vaccine to the European Union. The health spokesperson of the largest political group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats) Dr. med. Peter Liese has received this information from sources from the European Commission and the company. The manufacturer has announced in contracts with the EU to deliver 55 million vaccine doses by the end of June. Most recently, it was unclear whether that promise would be kept. However, 50 million doses are certain. The vaccine has shown good efficacy in clinical trials not only against the original type of the virus, but also against the British and even the South African and Brazilian virus mutations. "It only takes one vaccination to achieve sufficient protection, so the vaccine will massively accelerate the pace in the EU. A total of 360 million vaccine doses have been announced for the second quarter, most of which (200 million) will come from BioNTech/Pfizer." Liese expects to exceed the European Union's promise of vaccination coverage for 70% of adults by the end of the summer.

"If everything runs as planned, this can be achieved as early as mid-July, and if things go well, every European citizen can already be offered vaccination by mid-summer," he said. Nevertheless, Liese advocated for speeding up the vaccination process even more, stating: "The most important difference between Johnson & Johnson's vaccine and those of the other manufacturers is not the principle, but the study design. Johnson & Johnson did a clinical trial with only one dose at first, and a trial of how the vaccine works after a second doses is still ongoing. For the other manufacturers, it was the other way around. From what we know now, it is quite likely that for a period of time, a single vaccination will provide adequate protection. To operate in the same way as the Great Britain vaccination process, namely to first vaccinate only once even with the vaccine from BioNTech and to postpone the second vaccination for a few months, now seems to make sense. In January/February there was no data at all on this, now we have not only the data from Johnson & Johnson, but also the so-called reallife data from the UK. The UK took a very big risk, but it was obviously worth it and we should do the same for about two months to be able to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible. The effect of giving two people the initial vaccination is much greater than the effect of fully vaccinating one person," said the doctor and MEP.