This is not good news and it could slow down those really great vaccination numbers that
I just told you about.
U.S. regulators are now calling for a complete and total pause on using the Johnson and Johnson
coronavirus vaccine because of six blood clot cases that have happened among six million
people who have received the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
So the first piece is that the FDA and the CDC have already decided they will no longer
use the vaccine at federal vaccination sites.
They are urging states to also pause.
And as far as I know, basically every state is doing it.
I know people who were scheduled to get their JNJ shot today.
Their appointment has been canceled.
What we know so far, per The New York Times, is that six recipients in the US developed
a really rare disorder that involves blood clots within about two weeks of vaccination.
It's six people, all women between the ages of 18 and 48.
One woman died.
A second woman in Nebraska has been hospitalized and is in critical condition nearly.
It's actually not six.
It's nearly seven million people in the U.S. have received the JNJ shot so far.
Nine million more doses have been shipped to states which presumably will just be held
for the time being.
Dr. Peter Marks, who directs the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, put
out a statement along with the principal deputy director of the CDC, Anne Schuchat, and they
said, quote, We are recommending a pause in the use of the vaccine out of an abundance
of caution.
So let's talk the numbers through six incidents out of about seven million vaccinations.
The first question is, was this caused by the vaccine or did these six individuals have
some underlying disorder or abnormality that was exacerbated by the vaccine?
Other questions that are being looked at include, given that we're talking about all six of
the individuals were women age 18 to 48.
Could this be connected to some kind of medication, for example?
And this is just an example.
There's no evidence of this, but this is the type of question that's being asked.
If all six of these women were on oral contraceptives, the birth control pill, that would be something
to look at.
We just don't know yet.
And while it's been while it's being investigated, it's going to be a setback in the vaccination
program.
Everybody is being clear right now that there is not a causal relationship here, but it
has to be investigated.
In the U.S., somewhere between 300000 and 600000 people per year develop blood clots
generally, but not this particular kind of blood clot.
This is a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.
It's very, very rare.
And we have to do it safely.
That has to be priority number one.
We also have to make sure that this is reported on in a responsible way.
You know what's going to be on Fox News tonight?
The anti vaccines are already saying, see, we were right about all of it.
Well, no, you the same people said MRSA vaccines are really, really dangerous.
And it actually it's been the two adenovirus vaccines that we are seeing, this blood clot
issue with the JMJ vaccine here in the U.S., AstraZeneca, in Europe and in other places.
Remember that out of 34 million people who received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Britain,
as well as the EU and and three other countries, there were 222 of these blood clot incidents
linked with a low platelet level.
So slightly different situation.
It's it's been the adenovirus vaccines where we've seen this, not the marnay.
And so when the same people that we're talking about MRSA come forward and say all of these
vaccines are unsafe, let's let's not allow them to to get Galab us.
Let's talk now about the effect on just the vaccination program in the United States with
the JMJ doses, we were expecting to have enough for all 260 million adults in the U.S. by
the end of next month, by the end of May.
Didn't mean everybody would have received their shots by then, but there would be enough
support.
Without the Johnson and Johnson doses, most adults, there would be enough supply for two
hundred and thirty million adults.
That's not everybody, that's not all 260 million.
But so many people are refusing to get the vaccine that in practice, even without the
JMJ doses, there very well could still be enough doses for every adult who wants the
vaccine to get one.
And that supply would be available by the end of May.
So we could be depending on how many people want the vaccine.
This could be a delay of a few weeks.
And getting to where we hope to get it could be a delay of a couple of months.
There are other countries that are so dependent on future doses of the JMJ vaccine that if
this doesn't get resolved in a way that it's deemed to be safe and the JMJ vaccination
continues, it could really be a disaster for the plans of of of some other countries.
The vaccine might also come back online relatively quickly, but with some demographic restrictions.
If we can determine that there's something about why it's only affected six women, do
you say, well, we're bringing it back online, but only men should get the JMJ vaccine?
This is idle speculation, but these are the things medical regulators are going to be
looking at.
So not the news that we wanted.
We continue vaccinating with the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccines.
Deaths are continuing down.
Cases are level.
And if we can trace the variants successfully, cases should be significantly lower in about
a month.
And we will continue following what happens with the JMJ vaccine, as well as other distribution
cases, variants and all of that.
Let me know your thoughts if you've received the JMJ vaccine already, but you're within
the two week period during which these reactions are happening, are you worried or are the
numbers so low that it doesn't concern you?
Let me know.
I'm on Twitter at David Pakman.