Trump accuses Biden for Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause
Former United States (US) President Donald Trump has accused the Biden administration of doing “a terrible disservice to people throughout the world” by allowing a pause in the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine.
The former president claimed in a statement that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) may be in cahoots with Pfizer, which manufactures the first of three US-approved vaccines.
“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,” Trump said.
“The results of this vaccine have been extraordinary but now its [sic] 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.”
Donald Trump went on to accuse “bureaucrats” at the FDA of allegedly being in league with their “friends” at Pfizer in announcing approval of that vaccine two days after the 2020 US election.
Trump added, “The FDA, especially with long time bureaucrats within, has to be controlled. They should not be able 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.”
As the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines need to be administered in two doses several weeks apart, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was seen as a game-changer in the push to vaccinate people as quickly as possible with just one dose.
Three vaccines were developed and authorized in record time, paving the way for the Biden administration’s efforts to ensure the mass production and delivery of the doses.
As of April 13, 2021, there have been 31.2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US and 562,718 officially recorded deaths. More than 190 million vaccine doses have been administered and 74.1 million Americans are now fully vaccinated — 22.6 percent of the population.
previous post