J&J Shot Loses Antibody Protection Against Omicron in Study

(Bloomberg) -- Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine produced virtually no antibody protection against the omicron coronavirus variant in a laboratory experiment, underlining the new strain’s ability to get around one pillar of the body’s defenses.

The vaccine appears to provide some defense against omicron, perhaps via other means such as stimulation of immune cells, according to Penny Moore, a South African virologist. The findings are consistent with other studies that show a partial loss of potency against Covid-19 for a number of vaccines, with J&J’s antibody protection looking particularly weak in the lab test.

Moore, a professor at Johannesburg’s University of The Witwatersrand, said that laboratory experiments were conducted on blood plasma samples from people who had had two doses of the Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE vaccine and those or the J&J single-shot inoculation.