US sidelines J&J vaccine, but donates +300k doses to Lebanon
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The US Embassy in Lebanon announces donating more than 300,000 vaccines to Lebanon, despite recommending against it at home.
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The CDC recommended not four days ago that other vaccines be preferred over J&J
The US Embassy in Lebanon announced that the US will donate 336,000 COVID-19 Johnson and Johnson vaccines to the country.
US Ambassador to Lebanon Dorothy Shea had called the vaccines "game changing" in interviews given to local media, amid a PR campaign by the US Embassy to highlight its role in the West Asian country.
However, it seems the CDC (the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), the national public health agency of the United States, has officially recommended that other vaccines be preferred over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at home, effectively sidelining it, and raising questions about the reasons behind "donations" of this vaccine.
The vaccine itself has also not had it easy, being criticized for its late arrival, its lower effectiveness compared to other vaccines, its rare side effects that temporarily halted its distribution in April, and now its recent sidelining due to concerns over its blood-clotting side effect.
About 16 million people in the United States have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as their primary immunization, compared with 73 million fully immunized with Moderna’s vaccine and 114 million with the Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Among Americans who have received a booster, just 1.6% chose Johnson & Johnson.
