Germany makes Johnson & Johnson vaccine available to all adults

Germany will lift the priority list for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against COVID-19, making the jab available to all adults. This was confirmed by Federal Health Minister Jens Spahn on Monday. 

Germany to lift prioritisation for J&J jab

After talks with the health ministers for Germany’s 16 federal states on Monday in Berlin, Spahn announced that prioritisation for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be lifted. This means that all adults in Germany will be able to have the jab after having had a consultation with a doctor, on a first-come-first-serve basis.  

Like AstraZeneca, the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine can lead to very rare side effects like blood clotting, primarily in younger people. For this reason, the Standing Vaccination Commission (STIKO) has only recommended the active ingredient for over 60-year-olds. 

However, the state health ministers determined that, by the end of May, or the beginning of June at the latest, everyone in this age group would already have been vaccinated. They decided therefore not to restrict the jab to older people and instead widen the offer to the whole adult population, to allow the country’s vaccination campaign to move “with greater speed, in a pragmatic manner.” 

“We are lifting prioritisation for Johnson & Johnson, like we have done for AstraZeneca,” Spahn said, “so that everyone can have the possibility of getting vaccinated after clarifications with their doctors and based on individual decisions.” 

Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot

Some 10 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine - which, unlike its competitors, only requires one dose to achieve full protection - are due to be delivered to Germany over June and July. 

Like the AstraZeneca vaccine, it uses adenovirus vector technology to provide protection against coronavirus, unlike the BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna jabs, which use messenger RNA technology. So far, only around 18.000 people in Germany have been vaccinated with the Johnson & Johnson jab.