The vaccine safety monitoring system works. And, federal health officials take swift action when a rare but serious potential health complication surfaces.
Those are the important takeaways from a new and hopefully temporary halt on using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. Early Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced they are "recommending a pause" on giving the J&J shot after six people developed blood-clotting one to three weeks after inoculation. One of them died. These are unusual blood clots developing in the brain and other places in the body and associated with low platelet counts.
With 6.8 million J&J doses administered in the United States, the risk of this side effect is extremely low. While it's not clear yet if the shot caused the clotting, caution and transparency are warranted, particularly during the first few months of the vaccine's rollout.
The FDA and CDC made the right move. It's critical to note that the decision does not affect use of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
The J&J pause spurred an energetic debate about whether this will broaden the ranks of those who are hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID or other diseases. That is indeed a risk. But there's a stronger argument that this move should bolster confidence in vaccines and safety monitoring.
The nation's surveillance system proved capable of picking up on an adverse event that may occur in roughly one out of a million people who get the J&J shot. The information was also quickly made public and will be examined by an expert panel during a livestreamed meeting on Wednesday.
Anyone with an internet connection can monitor this meeting. The transparency is at striking odds with a common anti-vaccine conspiracy theory — that side effects are covered up by mainstream doctors, federal health agencies and the news media.
In an interview Tuesday with an editorial writer, Mayo Clinic's Dr. Gregory Poland concurred with the FDA's pause. Poland is one of the world's leading vaccine researchers, and provides consulting to COVID vaccine manufacturers.