Johnson & johnson

After months of uncertainty, the Centers for Disease Control shifted its policy this week to fully recommend that pregnant and breastfeeding women get vaccinated against COVID-19. The announcement marked a significant shift for expecting mothers, many of whom have struggled to weigh the risks and benefits of taking an experimental vaccine while growing a baby inside. Yet, in announcing the new guidance, the CDC carefully called pregnant and breastfeeding women ‘people’, implying that men, too, can give birth and produce breast milk. You could dismiss this as a harmless bit of inclusion, meant not to offend the trans men (born female-bodied) who are pregnant and breastfeeding.

The Biden administration is desperate for some fresh ideas as they attempt to convince more Americans to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Between White House press secretary Jen Psaki, Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Rochelle Walensky, we are constantly hearing about the White House’s latest creative ways to encourage people to get vaccinated. The administration seems eager to push the notion that all of the vaccine holdouts are Trump supporters. Unfortunately for them, recent studies suggest otherwise.

Good vaccine news has been pouring in today — this afternoon it was the turn of the Janssen vaccine, made by US company Johnson & Johnson. An international trial, in which the vaccine was tested against various strains of the virus, has found the jab to have 66 per cent overall efficacy. This is a lower efficacy rate than the trial conducted in the United States — which found the jab to be 72 per cent effective. But the international trial was designed to test the vaccine against more aggressive strains of the virus in a bid to answer questions about the new mutations.