FDA advisory panel votes to recommend Johnson & Johnson vaccine Emergency Use Authorization

The Food and Drug Administration advisory panel unanimously voted Friday afternoon to recommend the Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine for an emergency use authorization.

For eight hours, the group of independent experts had reviewed the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.

The FDA is expected to make the final decision Saturday.

READ: FDA finds Johnson & Johnson vaccine effectively prevents COVID

While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is less effective than Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, the experts noted that no one who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was hospitalized or died from coronavirus.

READ: Here’s what makes J&J vaccine different than the others

Studies in children are planned with the older group of children expected to begin receiving the vaccine as soon as early March.

Plans to conduct studies in pregnant women are expected to begin in late March or early April.

There are also additional studies planned in immunocompromised people.

More: Local 4′s Dr. Frank McGeorge answers COVID vaccine questions