Safety protocols working
The federal recommendation to pause administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was the big health care news this week, and not the kind that a health care reporter is excited to cover. Truthfully, my heart sank when I learned the news. Not because I think that the 6.8 million Americans who had received a shot already are now in imminent danger (six people had a reaction that could be linked to the vaccine, which even if it is linked, that’s nearly one in a million odds), but because I knew that the disinformation/vaccine hesitancy battle that the scientific community is fighting just got even harder. If you’d like a good summary of what’s happening, I recommend this piece written by a journalist I admire who specializes in covering vaccines (long before COVID-19 came along). The quick summary is: Don’t panic. This is a great example of all the safety protocols that are in place, working as they should.
Stay healthy,
– Elizabeth Fite, health care reporter, efite@timesfreepress.com