COVID-19 Vaccine Contamination?

Johnson & Johnson has had a few minor hiccups with their vaccines. Previously, the Johnson & Johnson had a period of time where the vaccine wasn’t allowed to be administered because of blood clots that only occurred in females. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being administered after it was cleared by the F.D.A. (Food and Drug Administration).

Now, Johnson & Johnson is facing another major hiccup. At a vaccine manufacturing facility in Baltimore, there is the possibility of contamination in their vaccines and has been told by Federal regulators that 60,000,000 of their vaccines can not be administered. Instead of wasting these vaccines, the F.D.A. plans to send 10,000,000 of these vaccines to be administered in the United States, as well as other countries. The individuals that will receive this vaccine will be provided with a warning that Emergent BioSolutions (the manufacturing plant of these vaccines) may not have followed proper manufacturing practices.

The factory has been shut down for two months. The F.D.A. has not decided if the factory can reopen.

The federal government has an adequate supply of the two other vaccines that are currently available: Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech. In reality, the Johnson & Johnson may no be needed because of the surplus of the other two vaccines, especially considering America has passed the peak of the number of people receiving their first vaccine. For information about vaccine and immunity projections visit this blog for more information.

This certainly will make it more difficult to fulfill President Joe Biden’s plan to send vaccines to other countries; however, Pfizer has agreed to sell the Biden administration 500,000,000 doses to help countries that are still fighting COVID.