Video source: YouTube, NBC News
Most unvaccinated Americans say they do not want to take Johnson & Johnson’s (NYSE: JNJ) COVID-19 vaccine, according to a newly-released poll taken when the single-shot dose was paused amid concerns over its safety.
An ABC News/Washington Post survey released Monday showed that 73% of those yet to be vaccinated said they would not take J&J’s vaccine, while only 22% said they would.
The poll was conducted while the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had temporarily suspended the vaccine after it was linked to very rare but serious cases of blood clots.
On Friday, federal health officials lifted the pause, saying the benefits of the vaccine outweighed the risks, but the vaccine will now include a new warning on its label “about the remote possibility” of “dangerous blood clots,” The Washington Post noted.
Among those surveyed, 48% said they believed J&J’s vaccine was safe, compared with 73% who said the same about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and 71% who felt the Moderna vaccine was safe.
Overall, 56% said they have received at least one vaccine dose, and another 18% reported they would get their shots when available.
24% of Americans said they do not plan to get vaccinated.
According to the poll, 74% of unvaccinated Americans said the J&J suspension did not impact their decision on whether or not they will get a vaccine, while 24% said it would made them less likely to get a shot.
The poll of 1,007 US adults was conducted between April 18 and 21, with a margin of sample error of plus or minus 3.5%.
On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, said he did not believe the pause would have a negative impact on the public’s willingness to get vaccinated.
“I think, in the long run, what we’re going to see, and we’ll probably see it soon, is that people will realize that we take safety very seriously,” Fauci said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.”
“We’re out there trying to combat the degree of vaccine hesitancy that still is out there, and one of the real reasons why people have hesitancy is concern about the safety of the vaccine,” Fauci said.
Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, has said the risk of serious blood clotting posed by the J&J vaccine was “extremely rare” and disagreed with calls by some for it to not be administered to women under age 65.
During an interview Sunday on NBC’s “Meet The Press,” Collins said out of eight million J&J doses administered across the US, 13 cases of blood-clotting were reported.
After reviewing the data, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices concluded “that the vaccine should go forward” and “be made available to everybody,” he said.
“There should be a fact sheet that provides the information to everybody to understand what the nature of this potential very rare side effect so that everyone is aware of the facts,” Collins added.
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Source: Equities News
