Olivia Reddish

Morgan Sorenson, a PV high school senior, holding her COVID vaccine card.

The Johnson and Jonhson vaccine is planned to be available to the U.S. public by the end of May. This vaccine has been developed to be more effective for the younger generation  and people with compromised immune systems.

The vaccine is produced through mRNA and spike proteins. It uses adenoviruses, common viruses that cause illnesses, to communicate with the cell and cause the cell to create antibodies for protection against the COVID-19 disease. This production method has been used in other vaccines, like Ebola, and has proven effective and safe with almost two hundred thousand people vaccinated with this type of vaccine and with no complications.

This new vaccine could prove beneficial to the younger population and people with compromised immune systems due to the low risk associated with the vaccine. Many highschoolers have gotten vaccinated with other shots, but the Johnson and Johnson vaccine could become a primary vaccine in the younger generation. 

Darren Erickson, the PV high school principal, explained his take on receiving the Johnson and Johnson vaccine when it becomes available. “I do think that the more people in our communities that we can get vaccinated will correlate with an overall reduction in cases,” Erickson said. 

The communities having a reduction in cases will be a step towards getting back to a normal everyday life. Erickson puts in his 2 cents on how the community getting vaccinated will affect the nation. “This in turn should have an impact in reducing cases nationwide and making everyone physically and mentally safer to begin to reacclimate to ‘normal’ living” Erickson said.

The vaccine is being tested in trials among 12 to 18 year-olds. If trials go according to plan, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine could be a primary vaccine for high schoolers. Future trials are planned to be tested with babies as young as one-year-olds.

Sophomore Ike Swanson shared what he would do if the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was available. “If offered to me I would take the vaccine, because it would get everyone back to everyday life and I could visit my grandparents that I haven’t seen in a while,” Swanson stated. Highschoolers getting vaccinated is a step towards bringing life back to a certain version of normal and the Johnson and Johnson vaccine is trying to reach this goal. 

The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is being tested in the younger population and is a step towards herd immunity of the country. Many high school students have not been able to see relatives and hope to get back to a normal life. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine could be the vaccine that gets the country a step closer to the herd immunity necessary to return to normal.