WATCH: Biden’s Covid Czar Insists Pausing J&J Vaccine Increased Confidence In Vaccines. Here’s The CDC Chart.

On Sunday, speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper, Jeff Zients, the White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator, insisted that the decision to put the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on hold had not had a deleterious effect on the effort to get Americans vaccinated, asserting his faith in the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “The FDA is the gold standard in the world,” he said. “And the FDA is constantly monitoring for safety. And doing the pause was the right thing. That builds confidence, that people know that the FDA and the CDC are monitoring.” He also insisted, “The research showed, after the pause, that confidence overall in the vaccines increased after the pause.”

Yet The Wall Street Journal reported on Sunday, “The 10-day halt in administering Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine has made it harder to inoculate the hard-to-reach and hesitant, health officials said, complicating efforts to reach community vaccination goals.”