I heard today that the JnJ vaccine was paused because there were 6 people who got blood clots.
I mean 6 out of 6 million doses. Is not a lot.
But compared to zero for the others. I guess it’s enough.
I just hope it doesn’t scare people off getting vaccinated.
It most certainly will scare off a lot of people from getting vaccinated. There are a lot of people on the fence about getting vaccinated and it just takes 1 incident for them to justify to themselves and others that they should wait rather than be vaccinated now. Some, of course, will not get vaccinated at any time and look for any excuse to justify their position. I am in an essential business and it was positively scary to see the number of 50+ year olds that were squeemishly in the process of signing up for the vaccine who after the J&J issue was divulged decided that now is not the time. Now I am hearing from them they will re-visit the possibility of taking the vaccine 8-12 months down the road when more time has passed and more data is in. I just wonder if their like minded friends and families start to contract COVID and some die, if that will change their mind.
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And if those same people were aware of the stats of injury/deaths from car accidents, would they stop driving or riding in cars?
I am concerned about this increasing vaccine hesitancy.
However, the news was coming out eventually anyway. Either the FDA takes it seriously and pauses vaccine administration, or they don’t take it seriously and people’s fears are then confirmed that this must mean none of the vaccines are safe.
I believe the U.S is lucky in that we have enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that any citizen that wants a vaccine should be able to get one by May 31st- according to the Biden administration. Even without J&J.
There is a lot of data on the Pfizer vaccines because of the way Israel did the vaccine rollout. Hopefully people can seek out that vaccine instead. I haven’t heard of any serious adverse reactions (aside from allergic reactions) to that vaccine. It is the one I got, and my husband is getting it later this week.
I don’t think so, in our organization anyways, the people that are scared most often make their decisions on feelings and emotions rather than facts so we can’t even expect consistent decisions from that group.
People were told over and over again to not trust the vaccines. Now that those people’s position have changed they say to get it? But people heard all the negative about why not and it has obviously caused a bigger group to still not trust it. So anything negative is going to add and justify that mistrust. Even people that always get their vaccines every year, all the recommended ones, (my sisters,) were untrusting about them. One has gotten hers, the other is said she’s going too but hasn’t yet. She was one of the first to qualify as she is over 70. They are both really avid vaccination people and yet were/are hesitant. And my niece has to stop medications to control her crones to even be able to get it, so I that’s not an easy choice for her.
I don’t blame them at all. I don’t completely trust the vaccines either. But I generally don’t like getting vaccinations for the most part in general. I just think at this point in time Covid is not going away, it is much more deadly and seems to linger with side effects in some for a long time. And my allergies to so many medications made me also hesitant. So I weighed the sides and came up to deciding to get vaccinated.
@katers87 said very significantly “With cases going up again, it seems inevitable that everyone will get either the virus or the vaccine. The vaccine certainly seems the safest bet, especially with the spread of the B117 which appears to be more deadly than the original virus.”
If not the B117 variant, viruses mutate constantly and this is the first virus that has had so many people sick at once to play with. And now 2 strains have mutated together. That is scarier stuff than the vaccine to me.
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I’m hopeful that they’re able to identify the few individuals for which this vaccine may pose a problem. I’ve known a few people who found the J&J more appealing than the mRNA vaccines. I think in your case, you said you were concerned about an allergic reaction to the mRNA vaccines.
If the government can state clearly why this is a problem for certain people, I think that would go a long way to making people more comfortable with other vaccines and potentially this vaccine again. As vaccine supply begins to outpace demand in some areas, I think it is good for people to have options for which vaccine they take.
Yes, I did pick the J&J one purposely because of my allergies to so many medications. It had the least problem with an allergic response to it. I guess I got it barely in time because I’m not sure I would get a Moderna or Pfizer one?
The problem becomes while the allergy response is low overall in the general population, it is more likely to occur in people like me and makes it a lot higher percent. Hence more problematic. The same as if I had a blood clotting issue I would never get the J&J one.
So yes, choices are a better option for all.
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The impression I got from the news media tonight is that this pause is not really about simply preventing deaths from blood clots. Instead it is about researching the issue and educating the medical community.
What makes the blood clots in the 7 reported cases (so far in the US) troubling was that if a physician treats the clot the “normal” way blood clots are treated, the clotting gets worse. 
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