Protest held outside Johnson & Johnson headquarters focusing on pandemic profiteering

Top health experts met on Wednesday to discuss COVID-19 booster shots after New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson announced an increase in the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine with a second shot.

News 12 Staff

Sep 22, 2021, 9:16 AM

Updated 1,118 days ago

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Top health experts met on Wednesday to discuss COVID-19 booster shots after New Brunswick-based Johnson & Johnson announced an increase in the effectiveness of its COVID-19 vaccine with a second shot.
The panel was expected to advise the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the best way to administer the additional vaccine doses. Currently, boosters of the Pfizer vaccine are only approved for those 65 and older, or those at high risk.
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A group of protesters rallied outside the company's headquarters on Wednesday afternoon. The protest was not focused on a second Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 shot, but rather pandemic profiteering. That’s what advocates from the AHF, AIDS Healthcare Foundation call what Johnson & Johnson is doing with its vaccines. 
The group protested as part of its "Vaccinate Our World" campaign. The groups’ concern is about who is getting access to the vaccine and how companies are profiting. 
It says 57% of the world population has yet to receive a single dose of any COVID-19 vaccine, yet, according to the Wall Street Journal, doses of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine are being produced in South Africa, one of the countries hardest hit by COVID-19. South Africa also has the lowest vaccination rates. The vaccines, however, were being exported to wealthier countries in Europe.
After significant public outcry, the doses manufactured at Aspen Pharmacare's facility in South Africa will now be shipped to African countries instead. 
The group says Big Pharma is also double dipping financially by doing so, getting billions from wealthier countries to produce the drug then getting paid to ship the vaccine to countries with money instead of those who now need it most.