Nate Silver, editor-in-chief of FiveThirtyEight, on Tuesday condemned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Tuesday over its decision to discontinue the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.
The FDA announced the break after six individual cases of blood clots in women between the ages of 18 and 48. Nearly 7 million single-dose shots have been administered since the vaccine was approved for emergency use at the end of February.
“6 cases out of 7 million people. What a disaster,” Silver responded on Twitter. “It’s going to kill people. And it’s going to cause more hesitation against vaccines. These people don’t understand the cost-benefit analysis. They’re still making mistakes in order of magnitude.”
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The political voice guru told another Twitter user that the FDA had “failed” its “high-input test” of messages, as those skeptical of taking the vaccine could also write off the vaccination against Pfizer and Moderna after the announcement. Silver also cited data showing that public confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe declined after the vaccine was suspended.
“Why did the FDA recommend the interruption anyway? Due to a combination of institutional culture, cognitive biases and bureaucratic incentives, they overweight the importance of rare adverse effects on people dying from COVID,” “Silver argued. “But unless they know about the institutional culture, it’s understandable that ordinary people might think ‘hmm, maybe there’s more going on’. Especially when public health officials have lost confidence by telling many ‘noble lies’ to people, for example in the early days again: masks. “
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Silver then compares the logic of the FDA to a scenario in which Gavin Newsom, a California government company, closed all beaches “out of an abundance of caution” to investigate rare shark attacks, writing: it probably won’t get more people to go to the beach. , even when beaches reopen. ‘
“However, I think it’s important that there * was * not * a specific panic / media panic about blood clots and the J&J vaccine, at least not yet,” Silver tweeted. “The FDA is therefore creating a Streisand effect and making these concerns more noticeable.”
Silver also acknowledged that while he may be ‘wrong’, he stressed that the pandemic had become a ‘political / media focal point’ and asked him whether the FDA was consulting ‘experts’ who were more concerned about such a decision. can address.
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In a statement, the FDA noted that the blood clots “look very rare” and added that the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these issues and assess its potential significance “. The FDA will then review the analysis.
However, the FDA has said it recommends this break until the investigation is completed.
In a statement to Fox News, Johnson and Johnson said that the “safety and well-being of people who use our products” is the top priority of the business and that they are aware of an “extremely rare disease that people with blood clots combine including ‘low blood platelet counts in a small number of individuals who received our COVID-19 vaccine.’
Fox News’ Brian Flood and Alexandria Hein contributed to this report.