J&J says second shot boosts protection for moderate-severe Covid-19 to 94 percent

Johnson & Johnson said Tuesday a second shot of its Covid-19 vaccine given about two months after the first increased its effectiveness to 94 percent in the United States against moderate to severe forms of the disease.

That compares to 70 percent protection with a single dose.

The data will help J&J make its case to U.S. regulators for a booster shot even as the company stresses the durability of its single-shot vaccine as a tool to ease the global pandemic.

President Joe Biden is pushing for booster shots in the face of surging hospitalizations caused by the Delta variant and J&J, the only drugmaker with a single-shot Covid-19 vaccine approved in the United States, has been under pressure to produce evidence on the effectiveness of an additional dose.