Two Doses of J&J’s Vaccine Slashed Omicron Hospital Stays (1)

Two doses of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine slashed hospitalizations caused by the omicron variant in South Africa by up to 85%, a critical finding since the shot is being increasingly relied upon across the continent, researchers said.

The results are a welcome bit of news as the explosive rise of omicron pushes the world to a record number of daily cases, and evidence emerges that the highly mutated strain can evade the protection that normally stems from vaccination. They also could help explain why hospitalizations and deaths aren’t following the exponential growth in new cases.

Visitors queue for vaccines at the Discovery Ltd. mass Covid-19 vaccination site in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Thursday, Dec. 9, 2021.

Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg

The study from ...