SACRAMENTO, California — In light of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine's approval, California Governor Gavin Newsom said in a tweet the state should receive 380,000 vaccines as early as next week.
UC Davis Health's Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases Dr. Dean Blumberg is cautiously optimistic after the Food and Drug Administration rubber-stamped a third coronavirus vaccine.
“The more vaccines we have, the better,” Blumberg said. “That means the sooner that we’re gonna be able to achieve widespread immunity throughout the community.”
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine's emergency-use authorization should bolster the vaccination effort and the already approved Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.
Unlike previous COVID-19 vaccines, Johnson & Johnson is one shot instead of two and can be stored in a fridge rather than an ultra-cold freezer. Blumberg said these factors could be greatly beneficial for much of Northern California.
“This is going to be more important. I think for rural areas where they don’t have that, that storage capacity and where it’ll be easy to distribute this vaccine and store it,” Blumberg said.
Johnson & Johnson expects 20 million doses available to the U.S. by the end of March and 100 million by the end of June. Some health experts say this could make the difference in getting shots for all adults who want them by mid-summer.
Blumberg said the biggest concern medical experts have is how effective the new vaccines will tackle the rapidly spreading coronavirus variants.
Watch also from ABC10: J&J's single-shot COVID vaccine gets FDA emergency use authorization
Worries about COVID-19 variants persist, but vaccines still show great efficacy.
