--- title: J&J COVID-19 Shot Works Well Against Delta Variant description: Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine helps prevent severe disease among those infected with the Delta variant, according to a trial. canonical: https://time.com/6088040/johnson-jj-shot-delta-variant/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2021-08-06T14:09:59.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-14T09:14:01.664Z article:section: Health og:title: Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Shot Works Well Against Delta Variant, Study Finds og:description: According to a trial involving almost 480,000 health workers in South Africa og:url: https://time.com/6088040/johnson-jj-shot-delta-variant/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70cbe848cb2939a5/698a1bb2929fadc0acbf7912/johnson-johnson-delta.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: Johnson Johnson Delta og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Shot Works Well Against Delta Variant, Study Finds twitter:description: According to a trial involving almost 480,000 health workers in South Africa twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt70cbe848cb2939a5/698a1bb2929fadc0acbf7912/johnson-johnson-delta.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Shot Works Well Against Delta Variant, Study Finds > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=2c3be1ec-a2f3-4be0-ac5e-408bd2f2f8d1&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process [Watch (HLS stream): Making the COVID-19 Vaccine: A 50,000 step process](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/XGIqdw9j.m3u8) (7:28)  _Published 2021-04-18. Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world_ by [Janice Kew and Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Janice Kew and Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 6, 2021 2:09 PM UTC Inside BioNTech's quest to vaccinate the world by [Janice Kew and Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg](https://time.com/author/bloomberg/) ## Janice Kew and Antony Sguazzin / Bloomberg Contributor Aug 6, 2021 2:09 PM UTC Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine helps prevent severe disease among those infected with the Delta variant, according to a trial involving almost 480,000 health workers in South Africa. The study, known as Sisonke, provides the first large-scale evidence that the J&J vaccine works against this dominant variant, according to trial co-lead Glenda Gray. It’s probably more protective against Delta than it was with the earlier beta strain, she said in a presentation Friday. The single-dose shot was 71% effective against hospitalization and as much as 96% effective against death, she said. It also demonstrated durability of eight months. “These results show there is no need for a booster yet,” said Gray, who is president of the South African Medical Research Council. While the J&J vaccine is a key element to South Africa’s vaccination plan, the country temporarily [paused](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-17/south-african-regulator-recommends-lifting-j-j-covid-vaccine-ban) its use in April after the U.S. decided to suspend the shot because of its link to rare blood clots. Other data have raised questions about how well the shot holds up against the highly contagious strain that has driven renewed outbreaks in countries including the U.S. and China. One U.S. study released last month [showed](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-20/j-j-shot-raises-fewer-antibodies-against-delta-variant-in-study) the J&J shot produced relatively low levels of antibodies against Delta. J&J said that analysis, which hasn’t been published in a peer-reviewed journal, had examined only one aspect of protection and didn’t consider long-lasting responses among immune cells stimulated by the vaccine. The drugmaker’s researchers [have said](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-07-02/j-j-covid-shot-neutralizes-delta-variant-is-durable-over-time) their own data indicated that the vaccine neutralizes the variant and that additional doses weren’t needed. ### Africa’s Rollout Earlier this year J&J agreed to supply as many as 400 million vaccines to the African Union through the end of 2022, delivering a boost to a continent trailing most of the world in the race to inoculate. The dose’s requirement for[ just a single shot](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-01/j-j-covid-19-vaccine-approved-in-south-africa-for-general-use) is seen as beneficial for Africa, where vaccine distribution to more than 1 billion widely dispersed people is likely to present a challenge. In the study, the vaccine was administered to the health workers at 120 sites in both urban and rural areas from Feb. 17 to May 17\. Analysis of a third data set is expected in coming days. There were two cases of the rare clotting disorder thrombocytopenia thrombosis syndrome among participants, with both making a complete recovery, Gray said. ## Transcript Kind: captions Language: en oh yes yes i'm vaccinated yes Very cool yes yeah yes, I did it was very cool to to know okay I'm gonna be vaccinated with a vaccine that I know really from day one I mean who can tell that they're part of the solution for such a pandemic situation I guess only a few people can say that and I'm really happy to be part of that If you've been vaccinated for COVID-19, chances are that you are benefiting from the science happening here at the German biotech company BioNtech. In December 2020 BioNtech in partnership with Pfizer were the first to earn authorization to distribute their vaccine to the public In March 2021 TIME spent a week watching how BioNtech makes a batch of 8 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine at their new manufacturing plant in Marburg they expect to produce 1 billion doses a year the pace of production has been breakneck from the start So in 2020 I think we worked at every holiday, I can remember Easter Saturday I was standing here pipetting samples to have the results as soon as possible and now 24-hour shifts in this lab are producing vaccines that will be shipped around the world There are approximately 50, 000 steps at the lab it begins with bags of pure mRNA the molecule that tells cells how to make the proteins that launch the immune response and a buffer solution that starts the coding process it emerges in bulk at the other end of the process as a liquid destined for vials most of the machines are named after the engineers that developed the process this one is named after Margaret the first patient in the clinical trials to receive the vaccine but the beating heart of the lab is this machine a container that uses pressurized ethanol to encase the mRNA and special lipid nanoparticles those nanoparticles keep the mRNA protected until it can jumpstart the immune response in the body's cells Speed is essential but inside the lab everyone moves slowly and methodically each of the 50,000 steps is logged by one technician confirmed by a second and only then does it actually happen it's very important that the quality of the product and all the raw materials is perfect here and so no impurities should be present in all raw materials and nothing which we don't want to have in our products one wrong move has the potential to damage the final product if there's any accidental exposure let's say from an ill-timed sneeze the entire batch must be thrown out, all eight million doses that's why everyone wears layers of protection and they even disinfect their gloved hands repeatedly in the lab where we were filming no one had ever told the technicians how many doses were in a batch after that they sprayed another application of disinfectant onto their gloves just to be sure based on our technology and on the antigen we were using no I wasn't I'm very confident in the technology we have until now vaccine development has been a slow process the BioNtech vaccine uses a new technology based on mRNA it is revolutionizing the way vaccines can be produced When the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, BioNtech was primarily a cancer vaccine company but by using this new mRNA technology it was able to quickly pivot to a coronavirus vaccine when you look back at any project you've ever done you've always looked back at the start and go wow okay if I'd known that now i could have cut you know a few hurdles out of my way earlier right but you're in a situation where you're doing something especially for us as a smaller company that was unprecedented the second part of the process happens at another factory where vials are filled and packed into boxes for shipment as the cycle comes to an end there's little time to celebrate after all another batch is waiting to be made ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/6088040/johnson-jj-shot-delta-variant/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/6088040/johnson-jj-shot-delta-variant/"},"headline":"Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 Shot Works Well Against Delta Variant, Study Finds","datePublished":"2021-08-06T14:09:59.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-14T09:14:01.664Z","description":"According to a trial involving almost 480,000 health workers in South 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