Good summary, thanks. I'm gonna disagree with Nate Silver on this as well. They should always err on the side of transparency. As much as this pause may add to vaccine hesitancy, the perception that the government is concealing any side effects from the public would be profoundly more damaging. That perception could bleed over to the Pfizer & Moderna vaccines as well. People would ask, if the govt. hid this about J&J what are they hiding about the other two? So big whiff from Nate Silver, imo.AWvsCBsteeeerike3 wrote: ↑April 15 21, 11:16 amDon't know if anyone's paid attention to the J&J vaccine being paused, it's made some news. I guess the gist of it is 6 middle aged women developed blood clots (cvst). 1 died I think. So, yes, that's not good. CVST is a known thing with known rates of occurrence. according to a graphic I saw, odds are about 10 in 100K for pregnant women, 5 in 1ooK for covid patients, 0.5 in 100K for general population, 2.5 in 100K for the birth control pill, and 0.1 in 100K for the J&J vaccine.
The reason the vaccine was paused, from my understanding, isn't because they're afraid of the rates at which cvst was occurring but because the treatment is a bit different from standard blood clots. So, they wanted to pause vaccinations and make it known cvst has been observed and this is how to treat it.
In order to understand what's going on takes a bit of a nuanced approach and willingness to learn...which we're as a collective whole either unable or unwilling to do.
And, of course, it's Murica so there has to be an argument about it and someone has to be right/wrong. Nate Silver has stated it was the absolute wrong decision (pausing the vaccine) 1. from a statistical analysis resulting in more deaths and 2. because it will lead to more vaccine hesitancy. I understand his point and tend to agree. But still think it was the right approach and I think most of the medical community will agree with me on this one (no evidence). There's a known issue. Probably. As small as it may be, they should take the time to make sure everyone is on the same page so it stays a minor issue before resuming.
All that said, they need to resume it pretty quickly. If this turns into a months long ordeal, I reserve the right to change my mind.
ETA: I'd also argue this should instill confidence in the safety of the vaccines if they're willing to pause the rollout due to 6 cases of cvst in 7+M cases. There's the nuance people need to understand but won't or can't.
I wish the media would do a better job at explaining just how safe these vaccines are, including the J&J. For example, pretty much all prescription medications, like that kind that millions of people take everyday for all kinds of things, have waaaaaaaay higher rates of serious side effects than these vaccines (based on the data so far). And yet people take them every day and don't think twice.