Passed along with permission from a Johns Hopkins doctor, re: the temporary suspension of the J&J vaccine:
“I am not particularly worried. Any medication or vaccine distributed this widely is likely to have some reports of adverse events. I think we were unusually lucky with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to have so few reports of problems. Even there, there was at least one report of a platelet problem that might’ve been related to the vaccine. Obviously this has to be kept in the context of an enormous denominator. I would view these events as being akin to people being killed by their airbags. It does happen but it is extraordinarily rare and the benefits of the airbag obviously greatly outweigh the risks of having them in your car.
We had a grand rounds lecture on the J&J vaccine last Friday by the developer of the vaccine, who is the brother of a faculty member here. The science behind it is very robust and it looks very effective. I would not hesitate to take it myself if I were not already vaccinated.
It is quite literally a one in 1 million occurrence. The government is trying to be super careful, but this has the unfortunate effect of fanning the flames of vaccine phobia.”