Former President Donald Trump took aim at the Biden administration on Friday evening for allowing for a pause in the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, accusing them of allowing “insanely risk-averse bureaucrats run the show.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had announced the pause of the use of the vaccine on Tuesday morning, citing six cases of women experiencing cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in combination with thrombocytopenia, a rare brain blood clot.
In a statement issued Friday night, the former president argued that the cases were rare enough that it should not hinder the vaccine roll out, calling the move “sheer lunacy.”
“The federal pause on the J&J shot makes no sense,” he said in the statement.
“Why is the Biden White House letting insanely risk-averse bureaucrats run the show? Just six people out of the nearly 7 million who’ve gotten the Johnson & Johnson vaccine reported blood clots,” he said.
“The condition is more common in the general population, and every vaccine—indeed, every medication—carries some risk, including the Moderna and Pfizer jabs.
“With COVID cases still rising nationwide, it’s sheer lunacy to delay millions of vaccinations and feed fears among the vax-resistant. Indeed, this moronic move is a gift to the anti-vax movement: The science bureaucrats are fueling that deranged pseudo-science.”
While the pause in the use of the J&J shot was initially supposed to last just a few days, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) decided on Wednesday the pause should remain in effect until the panel meets again in seven to 10 days.
The Biden administration has defended the pause, arguing it’s the proper precaution to keep Americans safe.
“Science moves at the speed of science and they want to review more data. We believe they are the gold standard, the [Food and Drug Administration] FDA is the gold standard in the world,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
“Actually, their thorough and transparent approach should give the American public additional confidence in the role they play and the approach the United States takes to the approval of vaccines out on the market.”
