- The Johnson & Johnson single-dose COVID-19 vaccine is no longer available in the US.
- Over two years after it was first approved, the last batch of doses has been thrown out.
At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans were clamoring to get vaccinated as soon as they could.
But now, millions of doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are getting tossed in the trash because no one's using them.
More than 2 years after Johnson & Johnson's vaccine was first authorized for emergency use by the FDA, it is now no longer available anywhere in the US, $4.
Over 31.5 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been distributed across the country since March 2021 — 19 million of which made it into Americans' arms, $4.
The 12.5 million remaining doses — nearly a third of the total produced — expired on May 7, and the CDC has told all vaccine providers to get rid of them.
Though the J&J vaccine was the least popular of the three vaccines available in the US, its final demise is still a stark contrast to the early days of COVID-19 vaccination when $4 to get vaccinated before their turn.
During the height of the pandemic, $4 just before closing time, hoping to snag soon-to-expire shots before they were trashed.
And even for those who followed the rules, wait times for vaccine appointments at the height of the public health crisis were often days — or even weeks.
The end of the J&J vaccine comes less than a week after the $4 officially ended the COVID-19 public health emergency as the Biden administration winds down its COVID-19 response. The World Health Organization recently said that COVID-19 is now a disease we'll need to learn to live with — though it warned that there's still a risk of a relapse with a new variant if countries slack off their preventative measures.
Correction: May 26, 2023 — An earlier version of this story misidentified the FDA's decision on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The vaccine was authorized for emergency use.