Morocco Faces Delays in Securing Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine

Last month, the Johnson-Johnson vaccine was authorized by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and on March 11, 2021, by the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This vaccine from the American laboratory has an overall protection of 66%, 28 days after vaccination, according to the clinical trials conducted on about 44,000 participants in 8 countries and on 3 continents. Regarding side effects, researchers from the American laboratory indicated that there is nothing serious, just "a little pain at the injection site, a little fatigue for some, nothing at all for the vast majority," said Mathai Mammen, director of research and development at Janssen, a subsidiary of the Johnson-Johnson group.

With the scientific results of the American laboratory, it is likely that this vaccine will be effective against the new variants, mainly the English and Brazilian ones, and 57% effective against the South African variant. And it is in this context that many are concerned about the delivery of these vaccines to Morocco, which plans to vaccinate 33 million of its population before Ramadan.

But Morocco will not receive its delivery anytime soon, a well-informed source told Hespress, specifying that "the Americans are very clear. We don’t discuss with Morocco before June 2021. And no delivery can be made before January 2022." However, in Africa, for having participated in the clinical trials, South Africa will be able to benefit from the Johnson-Johnson vaccine first.