Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC on Tuesday that she believes the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation that states pause the use of Johnson’s single-injection Covid vaccine & Johnson will likely have lasting impacts on the nation’s efforts to combat the pandemic.
“This is a devastating blow to this effort against the J&J vaccine in the United States,” Patel, a primary care physician in Washington, DC, said in an interview with Squawk Box. He also worked on health initiatives in the Obama administration while serving as policy director for the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement.
Patel said the supply of two-shot vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna will not be able to quickly meet the demand created by the J&J break. This will delay U.S. vaccination efforts, he added.
The FDA recommendation, released Tuesday earlier, came after six people in the United States developed rare and severe blood clotting problems after receiving the J&J vaccine.
In a tweet, the U.S. regulator said measures were being taken “with great caution.”
All six cases occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms that developed six to 13 days after receiving the vaccine.
As of now, J&J said there is “no clear causal relationship” between these rare events and the vaccine. The American drug giant also said it works with regulators.
While he hopes Moderna and Pfizer will be able to “catch some of this strike” over time, Patel stressed that “it will take time” for other vaccine manufacturers to have additional doses available in the U.S.
A particular challenge with stopping the administration of the J&J vaccine is that it requires only a single injection, Patel said, while the Modern and Pfizer mRNA vaccines require two doses to fully protect immunity.
“In the next few weeks or three, we can’t replace him,” said Patel, an NBC News medical contributor and non-resident member of the Brookings Institution. “This will delay our vaccination efforts.”
To compensate, the United States may consider withdrawing second-dose administration for Moderna and Pfizer vaccine recipients, Patel suggested.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to the White House, has opposed calls to do so in the early moments of the pandemic.
The second dose of Moderna is supposed to be given four weeks after the first, while Pfizer is three weeks apart.
“You will feel a renewal of the calls to delay this second shot so that we can make so many first shots in the arms. It is not unreasonable to do so, which must be taken into account now,” Patel said.
“If we take out the second doses of Moderna or Pfizer for a week or two, that could still help us catch some of that wear and tear at a faster rate,” he added.