The mayor of Detroit has reportedly rejected the Johnson & Johnson vaccines for his city, saying the shots are not as good as the versions of Moderna and Pfizer, which Dr. Anthony Fauci reprimanded Friday.
“We need to get away from this issue to compare each other, except to say that we have an extremely effective group of three vaccines,” Fauci said when asked about Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s decision to make more than 6 000 Johnson & amp; Johnson is lecturing this week.
‘In the important area to prevent diseases leading to hospitalization and death, [the Johnson & Johnson vaccine] is almost 100 percent, ”he insisted at a personal information session of the White House. “I only take the vaccine that is most readily available.”
His remarks come after Duggan refused to receive 6,200 doses of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson jabs for the city, a public information officer at the Department of Health and Human Services in Michigan told Crain’s Detroit.
The doses were instead sent to ‘other health departments that had lower coverage rates for those aged 65 or older’, the official said.
Duggan appears to have doubled his decision later on Thursday, saying: ‘Johnson & Johnson is a very good vaccine. Modern and Pfizer are the best… And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure residents of the city of Detroit get the best. ”
According to the companies, the efficacy rates of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are about 94 percent after the second dose.
In contrast, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approximately 66 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe COVID-19.
But at the same press conference with Fauci on Friday, White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt suggested to the COVID-19 response team that the comments of the mayor of Detroit be misinterpreted.
“After we spoke to them, the mayor’s office indicated that it was a misunderstanding. That was not the intention of these remarks, “said Slavitt.
“We were in constant conversation with Mayor Duggan, who said that was not really what he said, and / or that it was reported,” Biden’s administrative adviser told the Detroit Free Press. ‘In fact, he’s very keen on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. And I think we will repeat the message that the first vaccine is absolutely meaningful for all of us to take. ‘