As the nation works to crawl out of the coronavirus pandemic at least somewhat intact, there appears to be no faster way to get back to normalcy than via mass vaccinations against COVID-19.
This has been going fairly well in recent weeks, too. Americans are lining up at their local pharmacies and doctors’ offices, as well as at mass vaccination sites set up in NFL stadiums, community centers, and parking lots.
But some recent trouble with the J&J vaccine has rekindled some of the reluctance that we’ve seen around the vaccine, which could jeopardize the speed at which we are able to reopen our economy.
About one out of every five Americans say they will never get a COVID-19 vaccine if they can avoid it, according to a new poll that was taken right before the United States paused Johnson & Johnson vaccinations because of an extremely rare issue with blood clots, threatening to set back America’s vaccination campaign.
The FDA and CDC said they are looking into the potentially dangerous blood clots, which occurred in just six women out of the nearly 7 million doses of the Johnson & Johson vaccine that have been administered so far. One woman died.
Despite what appears to be an exceedingly rare risk, the pause could threaten Americans’ trust in vaccines, as Europeans’ confidence plummeted in the wake of problems with the AstraZeneca vaccine last month.
The fewer vaccines administered, the slower our economic recovery will be.
The pause on the J&J vaccine is likely to only last a few days; just enough time for the government to educate the public about the risk of side effects.
