‘Supplemental’ COVID shot for those who got J&J vaccine offered at California hospital

A San Francisco hospital appears to be the first in the nation to offer people who got the single-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine a follow-up dose for added protection, likely to help ward off the delta variant.

Those who got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine can receive a second dose of either the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccines at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, health officials say.

The hospital will prioritize San Francisco residents for the supplemental shots but will also serve residents of other California counties while supplies last. It’s unclear if people living outside the state are eligible.

Physicians are calling it a “supplemental” shot rather than a booster.

“It’s not a booster because it’s not specific for some of the variants, which the booster ultimately will be,” Dr. Chris Colwell, chief of emergency medicine at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, told KGO.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have not recommended “supplemental” or booster shots to fight any of the more dangerous coronavirus variants spreading in the United States.

The San Francisco Department of Public Health said in a statement that the offer does not represent a policy change or break with CDC guidance, SFist reported. The agency says it is not officially recommending the shots.

Evidence shows the delta variant is more contagious and can cause more severe disease in unvaccinated people, increasing risks for hospitalization and death.

“Potential benefit, no downside,” Colwell told KGO. “To me, as we look at the future of this virus and now we’re facing a fourth surge, it does make sense.”

More than 665,000 people in San Francisco have been vaccinated against COVID-19, or about 70% of the city’s population, officials say. Around 8% of those received the Johnson & Johnson shot.

More than 199 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed worldwide, including more than 4 million deaths as of Aug. 3, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has more than 35 million confirmed cases with more than 613,000 deaths.

How effective is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine against delta variant?

Company data show the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine spurs antibody activity against the delta variant, and “at an even higher level” compared to that of the beta variant first identified in South Africa.

In all, it was 85% effective against severe/critical disease and protected against hospitalization and death.

Though a newer non-peer reviewed study posted July 19 found the delta variant, as well as a list of other variants spreading across the globe, led to a 3.2- to 4.9-fold decrease in the level of antibodies produced after vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson shot compared to D614G, a previous coronavirus strain.

The researchers say their findings highlight the benefits of a potential second shot following one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to “increase protection against the variants.”

“The message that we wanted to give was not that people shouldn’t get the J.&J vaccine, but we hope that in the future, it will be boosted with either another dose of J&J or a boost with Pfizer or Moderna,” Nathaniel Landau, a virologist at New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine, who led the study, told the New York Times.

Does mixing-and-matching COVID-19 vaccines boost protection?

Earlier in the pandemic, the concept of mixing COVID-19 shots from different companies was mostly discussed in regards to a national vaccine supply shortage.

Now, scientists are studying the method to understand if receiving a different COVID-19 shot for your second dose offers extra protection against more dangerous variants.

A study published in May found that people who received one dose of the two-shot Pfizer vaccine two weeks after getting one shot of the two-dose AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine — which is not authorized for use in the U.S. — produced a “robust” antibody response with mild side effects.

A separate paper posted in June also found that mixing the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines, in either order, conferred higher levels of antibodies against the coronavirus than two doses of the AstraZeneca shot.

There is no data on how safe or effective mixing Johnson & Johnson vaccines with other COVID-19 shots is, but the vaccine uses the same method of delivery as the AstraZeneca shot.

The Pfizer and Moderna shots use a molecule called mRNA to trigger the production of antibodies, while the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines are vector-based, meaning they insert a harmless modified virus into our bodies to complete the same job.

Despite the positive evidence collected so far, federal and international health officials say it’s too early to officially recommend mixing and matching COVID-19 vaccines to receive extra protection against variants.

The National Institutes of Health announced June 1 that it started a clinical trial to study the method.