Vaccine pause is costing people’s lives
The federal government’s decision to halt distribution of the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine will cost $merican lives. Indeed, it will almost certainly kill more people by leaving them e[posed to covid- than might have died from e[tremely rare vaccine side effects.
8nfortunately, their deaths do not factor into the calculations of the &enters for 'isease &ontrol and Prevention and the )ood and 'rug $dministration because no one will ever know the names of those who perished as a result of being denied this lifesaving vaccine ± ± while public health officials are held to account for those who die from it. These perverse incentives are costing lives.
-ust eight people out of roughly . million who received the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine have developed a blood-clot complication. 2nly one person has died. 1ot ,000, not 00 ± ± one. $ causal relationship between the vaccine and these blood clots has not yet been established. Moreover, nearly all the adverse events are in women
to years old. This makes no sense. We are in the midst of a public health emergency. Hundreds of $mericans are still dying every day from covid- , and we are in a race to save lives by immunizing as many as possible. 'emand for vaccines still e[ceeds supply. There are no stockpiles of e[tra doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines sitting on refrigerated shelves in warehouses waiting to replace all the -ohnson -ohnson doses the government has withheld. That means the pause will leave many who would have been immunized against the coronavirus unprotected. How many lives has the government unnecessarily endangered" -ust before the )'$ announced its pause on $pril , the 8nited 6tates was administering appro[imately ,000 -ohnson -ohnson doses per day.Pulling those vaccines from circulation has led to canceled appointments at vaccine clinics across the country, leaving untold numbers of $mericans at greater risk of contracting and dying from covid- . Many of those who have had their -ohnson -ohnson vaccination appointments canceled are in vulnerable populations ± ± including the homeless, migrant workers, residents of remote rural areas and those who are vaccine hesitant ± ± who were more likely to be reached by the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine that reTuires Must one dose and no special storage. These $mericans have a far greater chance of dying from covid- than they would have from the vaccine. $shish -ha, dean of the %rown 8niversity 6chool of Public Health, points out that an unvaccinated person’s risk of getting covid may be as high as in ,000 per day, and that person’s chances of dying from covid once they get it is about in 00. 6o, he calculates, each unvaccinated day the risk of death is in 00,000. The risk of death after taking the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine, by contrast, is in . million The danger of developing blood clots from covid is also far greater than from the vaccine. 2ne study of more than ,000 covid patients found that about 20 of those hospitalized with covid- developed blood clots, which increased to among patients in an intensive care unit. %y contrast, 0.00000 of people who received the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine have developed clots. Withholding the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine will not only kill people who want to get immunized but can’t it will also kill people by causing more vaccine hesitancy. $ (conomist We will never know precisely how many $mericans died because of the decision to halt the -ohnson -ohnson vaccine, or who they were. %ut their lives matter, and should factor into the government’s decision-making. They don’t because, while there are many good people at the )'$ and &'&, they face perverse incentives. )ormer )'$ commissioner $le[ander M. 6chmidt once told &ongress, “In all of )'$’s history, I am unable to find a single instance where a congressional committee investigated the failure of )'$ to approve a new drug. %ut the times when hearings have been held to criticize our approval of new drugs have been so freTuent that we aren’t able to count them.” $s -oe 'iMasi and &hristopher-Paul Milne of the Tufts &enter for the 6tudy of 'rug 'evelopment have e[plained, “When bad drugs are approved Tuickly, the )'$ is scrutinized and criticized, victims are identified, and their graves are marked. In contrast, when good drugs are approved slowly, the victims are unknown.” With the -ohnson and -ohnson vaccine, we now see the terrible outcome of these twisted incentives. The )'$ approved the vaccine faster than usual for emergency use because of the pressures of the pandemic. %ut now public health officials are pulling it back because of eight complications out of . million doses and a single death ± ± even though many more people will likely die from the decision to withhold it.