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Johnson & Johnson says its COVID booster significantly increases antibodies

25 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

A booster shot of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine offers a significant increase in antibodies, the company announced on Wednesday.

Driving the news: People who received a booster shot six to eight months after their first J&J dose saw "a rapid and robust increase in spike-binding antibodies, nine-fold higher than 28 days after the primary single-dose vaccination," J&J said.

  • The data comes from two Phase 2 studies in individuals previously vaccinated with the single-shot vaccine.
  • "We have established that a single shot of our COVID-19 vaccine generates strong and robust immune responses that are durable and persistent through eight months," Mathai Mammen, global head of research and development for Janssen, said in a statement.
  • "With these new data, we also see that a booster dose of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine further increases antibody responses among study participants who had previously received our vaccine."

The big picture: The announcement comes a week after the federal government announced that beginning the week of Sept. 20, those who received a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine should expect to be offered a booster shot eight months after their second dose.

  • The J&J vaccine was not part of the Biden administration's initial booster plan due to lack of data, per the New York Times.
  • Johnson & Johnson says it will submit the data to Food and Drug Administration, and it looks "forward to discussing with public health officials a potential strategy for our Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine."

Go deeper: What to know if you got the J&J vaccine

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.