Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan (D) defends his decision to reject a consignment of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, says in a press conference Thursday that the Pfizer and Modern vaccines are better and he wants Detroit residents to ‘get the best’.
Duggan turned down 6,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which last weekend became the third to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for emergency clearance.
The mayor said the city received 29,000 of the Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna vaccinations this week, which he said were enough to vaccinate every resident eligible so far to receive the vaccine and want one.
According to the city’s health departmentresidents 50 years and older with an underlying medical condition, manufacturers, school staff and others identified in high priority groups are currently eligible for a coronavirus vaccine.
‘Johnson & Johnson is therefore a very good vaccine. “Modern and Pfizer are the best,” Duggan said on Thursday. “And I’m going to do everything in my power to make sure the people of Detroit get the best.”
Clinical trials of both the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have shown that it is approximately 95 percent effective in preventing moderate to severe cases of COVID-19 after two consecutive doses.
Meanwhile, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one dose, has been found to be approximately 72 percent effective.
“At this point, anyone in the city of Detroit who is eligible and who wants a vaccine can get one,” Duggan said. ‘The day may come in March or April when every Moderna and Pfizer has been committed, and we still have people in need of a vaccine. And at that point, we’ll set up a Johnson & Johnson Center. ”
However, the mayor added that he will not see the scenario take place in the next few weeks.
Public health experts have repeatedly promoted the safety and efficacy of each of the FDA-approved vaccines, encouraging people to receive whatever one is available.
Michigan Health and Human Services Department spokesman Bob Wheaton told CNN in a statement Friday that the 6,000-plus Johnson & Johnson doses not used by Detroit were “given to other health departments that had lower coverage rates for those aged 65 or older.”
According to Detroit’s COVID-19 dashboard, more than 101,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine have been administered in the city so far, with more than 55,000 future doses.