The White House is struggling to combat the global pandemic due to vaccine hesitancy after pausing the COVID-19 vaccine following its rare side effects.
White House Struggles To Combat COVID-19
The White House or the Biden administration is struggling to combat the global pandemic caused by the infectious and deadly COVID-19. This is after the uptick of new cases in many states in the country, according to a published article in The Hill.
Even if millions have already received the first or second dose of the vaccine, the was an increase of new COVID-19 cases each day recently. This is partly because most states decided to lift or ease their restrictions.
Experts warn that the increase will continue due to the new variant which is more transmissible compared to the original variant. This will only stop until the country reaches herd immunity, according to a report published in The New York Times.
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U.S. FDA Paused the Use of Some COVID-19 Vaccine Drew Hesitancy
The decision of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson this week is one of the other challenges that the Biden administration is facing today. In a recently published article in the Los Angeles Times, experts praised it as a right move due to its rare side effect but this could increase vaccine hesitancy.
Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel announced on Wednesday that they cannot yet determine as to when they will allow the resumption of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine. This means that the pause may last for weeks.
According to a report in the USA Today, the agency's decision to pause the use of the vaccine will have a negative impact on the country's rollout of vaccination. Bloomberg reported also that 1 in 7 residents remained hesitant to get the vaccine.
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White House Confident that Vaccine Supply is Still Enough
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday during the briefing that "We remain confident that we have the supply needed to meet the demand. Because we are overprepared and oversupplied, we remain confident in that."
The U.S. officials said this week that the country now averages three million vaccinations every day. They also said that around 3.5 million shots of COVID-19 vaccines were given on Wednesday. Moreover, more than 100 million Americans have already received at least the first dose of the vaccine.
Furthermore, Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who served on Biden's COVID-19 advisory board during the transition, said that the decision to pause the vaccine is necessary and he described it as being transparent about the vaccine process.
He said, "If there is any sense that something is being hidden, I think that will create irreparable harm from a credibility standpoint to our ability to continue to pursue these vaccine programs."
Even before the unexpected headlines, vaccine hesitancy was an issue. Monmouth discovered that 21 percent of U.S. adults believe they are unable to receive a vaccine, a decrease from 24 percent in March but still a high figure.
