The CDC and FDA’s recommendation to “pause” use of the Johnson & Johnson one-shot vaccine already is raising concerns in the medical field about the impact on the pace of and confidence in COVID-19 vaccinations.
“It’s going to be hard … to walk this back,” Dr. Kavita Patel, a Brookings nonresident fellow, said on CNBC this morning. “This is a devastating blow to the J&J vaccine effort in the United States.”
To recap, the agencies want a pause “out of an abundance of caution” after six reported cases of a “rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine.” This, out of more than 6.8 million doses of the shot.
Patel cast doubt on whether there’s a “strong link of causality.” The FDA now says the pause might only last days while they sort it out. Evidently conflicted, Patel tweeted it “seems like the right thing to do” but stated what, within moments, has become painfully obvious – “it’s going to be hard to get back lost consumer confidence.”