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A new study out of South Africa shows that a booster shot of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose COVID vaccine provides strong protection against severe cases from the Omicron variant.
The preliminary results of the study, which have not been peer-reviewed, found the healthcare workers who received the booster shot had their risk of being hospitalized reduced by 85% compared to 63% for those who had just one shot.
"Data from the Sisonke 2 study confirm that the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 booster shot provides 85 percent effectiveness against hospitalization in areas where omicron is dominant,"Â Mathai Mammen, the global head of Janssen Research & Development, a pharmaceutical company owned by Johnson & Johnson, said in a statement.
"This adds to our growing body of evidence which shows that the effectiveness of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine remains strong and stable over time, including against circulating variants such as omicron and Delta."
The pharmaceutical company also cited a second lab-based study which found that those who were fully vaccinated with Pfizer or Moderna's mRNA vaccines and received the Johnson & Johnson booster shot had a 41-fold increase in neutralizing antibody titers and a five-fold increase in the T cells that destroy any cells that have become infected by the virus.