The Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine has been pulled from the market, according to the Daily Mail, due to the FDA revoking its authorization. The J&J vaccine, which was reportedly taken by 19 million Americans, was put on hold after severe blood clot concerns caused a wave of distrust of the company’s vaccine, and with it, a decline in demand. With distribution of the J&J vaccine having drastically decreased since problems were reported, the company’s abandonment of producing a COVID vaccine did not come as a surprise to many.
The number of Americans who opted to receive the J&J vaccine was far below the number that opted for Moderna or Pfizer. According to the Daily Mail, nearly 367 million Americans have received a Pfizer shot while over 232 million have received a dose of Moderna’s vaccine.
The J&J vaccine was surrounded by controversy ever since it became associated with blood clots just one month after it received emergency use authorization from the FDA. More specifically, research revealed that “a small but growing number of severe blood clotting disorders called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome (TTS) in people who got the shot. Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome is a severe condition characterized by thrombosis formation, or blood clots, combined with thrombocytopenia, a severely low platelet count that hinders the body’s ability to stop a wound from bleeding.”
After its initial release on the market in February 2021, the FDA and CDC put a pause on administering the shots in April 2021 when six cases of the blood clot disorder were discovered. After an investigation, authorities determined that the vaccine’s COVID-19 prevention outweighed its risks. Still, public trust in the single-dose vaccine diminished, plummeting sales, and the disposal of the remaining doses that had expired, contributed to the request for pulling it from the market altogether.