Health experts: Benefits of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine outweigh the risks

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is back on track in the United States after officials lifted a 10-day pause on the shots.

News 12 Staff

Apr 24, 2021, 2:23 AM

Updated 1,240 days ago

Share:

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is back on track in the United States after officials lifted a 10-day pause on the shots.
A panel of health experts recommended that the use of the vaccine resume, with advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying that the benefits of the shot outweigh the rare risks of blood clots.
Three women died after taking the vaccine, and 15 more people became sick. Doctors say that the condition is rare.
“There’s no doubt that it’s an effective vaccine,” says Dr. Jeffrey Carson, with Rutgers-RWJ Medical School.
Carson says that he fully supports the panel’s decision to continue the use of the vaccine. He says that the world needs the one-shot dose.
“It prevents the most serious forms of the illness – hospitalizations and it prevents deaths,” he says.
The CDC panel has suggested that young women should be warned of the risks. But health experts say that the rare clotting illness in a limited number of people should not stop its use.
There have been 248,787 people in New Jersey who have received the J&J shot – a small portion when one considers that 6.4 million COVID-19 doses have been administered in the state.
People outside the Edison COVID-19 vaccine megasite were mixed on the issue.
“If they bring it back, I trust they know what they’re doing. I fully am OK with that,” says Patricia Stryker, of Cranford.
“There just seems to be too many variables that it’s not safe enough,” says Heather Papatrefon, of Somerset.
Dr. Carson says that the J&J shot should be used because there is still a lot of vaccine hesitancy – exacerbated by the pause. He says that use of the vaccine needs to get back on track around the world.
“If that was overcome and all of the citizens say, ‘I’ve got to get the vaccine,’ then it could play a role in vaccinating our state and world more rapidly than if we don’t have its use,” he says.
Carson says that he hopes that people realize that every medicine can carry side effects, but the benefits outweigh the risks.