J&J VACCINE PAUSE IS SIGN SYSTEM IS WORKING

The federal government’s recommendation Tuesday that providers pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine — because of six women with unusual blood clots that may be related to the shot — was instantly debated but quickly put into practice. Elsewhere on this page, columnist Megan McArdle arrives at the argument that withholding the J&J jab when people are still dying from COVID-19 and need to be vaccinated doesn’t make much sense, given that six bad reactions, including one death, out of more than 7 million vaccinations isn’t a broad indictment of the vaccine’s safety.

These arguments deserve to be aired. But on the whole, The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board is of the view that Americans should and many will look at this decision and think the vaccine-safety process is working. When regulators saw problems that weren’t expected, they hit pause. This is President Joe Biden’s first big test with the vaccine rollout. Messaging needs to be precise, based on science and easy to understand, especially for those who may be on the fence about the vaccine.

Just don’t think of this federal recommendation as a huge setback for vaccination efforts. That worry doesn’t hold up given that the J&J vaccination only accounts for 5 percent of COVID-19 shots in the U.S., and the government has deals to obtain 600 million of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines that were approved earlier and make up the vast majority of shots — enough to fully vaccinate every U.S. adult. The J&J twist is not ideal. But it may be a footnote in the painful history of this pandemic.