Former President Donald Trump blasted President Joe Biden Tuesday for his administration’s call to pause the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) suggested stopping vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine while researchers examine six cases of severe blood clotting potentially connected to the vaccine. Nearly 7 million Americans have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Trump hammered Biden over the suggestion to pause using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, while suggesting that the decision was motivated by politics or corruption. Trump said in a statement:
The Biden administration did a terrible disservice to people throughout the world by allowing the FDA and CDC to call a “pause” in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. The results of this vaccine have been extraordinary but now its reputation will be permanently challenged. The people who have already taken the vaccine will be up in arms, and perhaps all of this was done for politics or perhaps it’s the FDA’s love for Pfizer. The FDA, especially with long time bureaucrats within, has to be controlled. They should not be allowed to do such damage for possibly political reasons, or maybe because their friends at Pfizer have suggested it. They’ll do things like this to make themselves look important. Remember, it was the FDA working with Pfizer, who announced the vaccine approval two days after the 2020 Presidential Election. They didn’t like me very much because I pushed them extremely hard. But if I didn’t, you wouldn’t have a vaccine for 3-5 years, or maybe not at all. It takes them years to act! Do you testing, clean up the record, and get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine back online quickly. The only way we defeat the China Virus is with our great vaccines!
Pfizer announced interim phase 3 trial results on November 9, but did not submit an FDA emergency authorization request for its vaccine candidate until November 20; The FDA did not authorize the vaccine for emergency use until December 11.
Pfizer did not immediately respond to The Daily Wire’s request for comment.
Johnson & Johnson released a statement Tuesday responding on the agencies’ calls to further investigate its vaccine: “We are aware that thromboembolic events including those with thrombocytopenia have been reported with Covid-19 vaccines. At present, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events and the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine.”
The FDA announced its recommendation to pause the vaccine Tuesday morning.
“Today FDA and @CDCgov issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson #COVID19 vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” the FDA said on Twitter. “As of [April 12], 6.8m+ doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S. CDC & FDA are reviewing data involving 6 reported U.S. cases of a rare & severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the vaccine. Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare.”
“Treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered,” the FDA said. “CDC will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess their potential significance. FDA will review that analysis as it also investigates these cases.”
Related: FDA Says One-Dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Is Safe, Effective