Biden in a vax bind
With J&J benched, prez needs to address public’s reluctance to shots
The sudden halt of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine puts President Biden’s crisis capabilities and the administration’s COVID-19 public relations strategy to a stiff test — one they’re far from currently passing.
Biden up to now has been happy to take credit for the millions of vaccination shots into people’s arms — even though the vaccines were developed under the Trump administration.
He’s vowed to administer 200 million doses in the first 100 days of his administration, a goal that now has been jeopardized by the hit to the one-shot J&J vaccine.
It’s unclear how long the investigation into blood clotting cases resulting from the J&J vaccine will take, but it could be much longer than the administration is letting on.
This is no brief “pause” — it’s a clear setback for the nation’s highly-touted vaccination program, despite what the administration is telling us.
And in another glitch, Norwood-based Moderna announced Tuesday that its vaccine is just 90% effective — a small decrease from its previous claims resulting from research studies.
It’s crucial that Biden come out now and assure wary Americans that the vaccines are safe at a time when dangerous new variants of coronavirus are pushing up case numbers. It’s also vital that Biden tell the truth and not try to sugar-coat or dismiss the bad news, because many Americans already don’t trust the Democratic administration.
A federal vaccine committee announced Wednesday it will continue the Johnson & Johnson “pause” until further notice.
Dr. Anthony Fauci tried to desperately spin the situation on Monday, saying he thinks the J&J halt could actually bolster people’s belief in the safety of the vaccines.
“The very fact that you have an organization, two organizations, the CDC and FDA, looking so carefully at this, making safety the primary concern, in my mind, confirms or underscores the situation that we take safety very seriously,” Fauci said. “So I would think, at the end of the day, it could actually diminish hesitancy.”
No, actually, it won’t. Most health and infectious disease experts have in fact said they’re extremely worried about the specter of “vaccine hesitancy” because of the J&J setback.
Millions of Americans were already wary of getting their shots before the news came out about the potential blood clotting issue, and now this could be an excuse for millions more to skip the vaccine — even the Moderna and Pfizer doses that haven’t been linked to serious side effects.
Gov. Charlie Baker, who has faced heat about his administration’s vaccine rollout, also tried to put the best spin on the situation, saying the state will have plenty of supply of the other vaccines to keep shots going into people’s arms.
This despite the fact that Baker had previously touted the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as a game changer in the state’s efforts to immunize residents.