In several hospitals, patients vaccinated with this product are over-represented among people vaccinated in intensive care.
- In France, vaccination with the Janssen vaccine started on April 24, 2021, for people aged 55 and over.
- In August, the ANSM recommended a booster dose, with an mRNA vaccine, to people who had received a dose of the Janssen vaccine.
A few months after its authorization in France, the Janssen vaccine sows doubt. According to data published by the National Medicines Safety Agency (ANSM), the serum, administered in a single dose until the end of August, would not be sufficiently effective against the Delta variant. “A potential signal has been highlighted in the face of a large number of cases of vaccine failure with the Janssen vaccine, with patients in intensive care or who died of COVID-19, most of them presenting comorbidities at risk of a serious form.“, explains the press release from the ANSM.
Cases of infection
The Covid-19 infection rate in people vaccinated with the Janssen product is 3.78 per 100,000. Around thirty cases have been identified according to figures recorded by the ANSM. They were people aged 73 to 87, with comorbidities. Among them, 29 people suffered from a severe form and four died. The contaminating variant is not known for all of these cases, but only for 17 people: for each of them, the infection was linked to the Delta variant.
Vaccinated patients in intensive care
Two hospitals reported an overrepresentation of people vaccinated with the Janssen product in intensive care units. In Marseille, four patients who received this vaccine were among the seven people vaccinated in intensive care. In Tours, they represented three out of six patients. Investigations are underway to assess whether the vaccine failures are specific to the Janssen product, or whether they are also associated with other vaccines.
Few side effects
The two regional pharmacovigilance centers, in Grenoble and Lyon, also transmitted the side effects recorded after vaccination with Janssen serum. According to their conclusions, their number is limited and the role of the vaccine remains uncertain. “To date, there is no particular signal concerning the deaths reported in France with the Covid-19 Janssen vaccine.“, specifies the ANSM report. Since April, around one million doses of the Janssen vaccine have been administered in France. This product works thanks to the technique of “non-replicating viral vector” based on adenovirus: that is to say that it contains an inactivated part of the virus which will trigger a response from the system immune. AstraZeneca’s serum works on the same principle. The latter was abandoned in France following several cases of thrombosis.
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