Was pulling vaccine the correct move?
Dr. Megan Ranney is a practicing emergency physician, researcher and advocate for innovative approaches to health. She is also the associate dean of strategy and innovation for the Brown University School of Public Health. She spoke to Michael Graham of InsideSources.com about the Biden administration’s decision to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Question: What was your reaction when you heard the federal government was recommending a halt to distributing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine based on the fact that six cases of blood clots?
Dr. Ranney: I’ll be honest: My first reaction was a deep sigh. ‘Oh my God, we are already struggling with confidence in vaccines in this country. Do we really need to pause on J&J?’ But then my second reaction, as I started to read about it, is I really think this was the right thing to do. Because based on the data we have, it looks like there really is an association between the vaccine and these blood clots, and it’s the job of the FDA and CDC to be careful.
Q: When it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic and all the statistics and data, is the biggest challenge facing public health policy the fact that Americans really don’t understand math? The risk really is one in a million.
Dr. Ranney: Well, no one is as good at math as they think they are — including physicians. But I think that the real problem is that we constantly misjudge risk. We all overestimate the risks of certain things and underestimate the risk of others. And this is just part of human nature. I think that’s one of the really big issues with COVID. The job of good science is to get high-quality data, and then make the conclusion and the story that the data tells very clear, to reduce the chance of unintentionally creating lies.
Q: If a person of typical health, somewhere between 25 and 45 years old, had the choice to wait a month until some other vaccine comes available or to get the J&J vaccine today, what would your advice be?
Dr. Ranney: For a woman of childbearing age — which is the women we’ve seen with the highest risk of this unusual form of clots — I would say that in the short term, they need to make an individual decision based on whether they have a family history of blood clots or anything else that would make you think you’re at higher risk. Do you smoke? Are you overweight? Do you have a family history of clotting disorders? If any of those are true, I might suggest you be very careful with your masking and in your social distancing and consider waiting until we have a little more information. But for someone like me, who doesn’t smoke, is not overweight and has no family history of clotting disorders or autoimmune problems — if my choice was the J&J vaccine today or nothing for another month, I would probably choose the J&J vaccine today. This side effect is unusual, and can be dangerous, but seems to be very, very rare for most of us.
Q: Do you agree that the public health messaging hasn’t been handled well and that pulling the J&J vaccine is going to send yet another message that will promote vaccine hesitancy?
Dr. Ranney: I think what influenced the decision to make this announcement is that something very similar was reported with the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe. And it’s the same kind of unusual, rare side effect, and in many ways the J&J vaccine is similar to AstraZeneca’s. And I think that’s probably what shifted them. And God forbid that anyone cover this up and wait for a few days before making an announcement. Can you imagine the negative media? I’m not part of the FDA or the CDC, but I can understand why they made this call. Their job is to err on the side of caution. I believe they take their obligations to protect the safety of Americans seriously. I’m hopeful that we’ll have more guidance, and more trustworthy data, soon.