Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC on Tuesday that he believes the Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation that states discontinue the use of the Johnson & Johnson single-injection Covid vaccine be likely to have a lasting impact on national pandemic efforts.
“This is a devastating blow to this J&J vaccination effort in the United States,” Patel, a primary care physician in Washington, DC, said in an interview with Squawk Box. She has also worked on health care 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 offset the demand created by the J&J break. It will delay US vaccination efforts, she added.
The FDA recommendation, issued earlier on Tuesday, came after six people in the US developed rare and severe blood clotting problems after receiving the J&J vaccine.
In a tweet, the US regulator said its actions were taken “out of an abundance of precaution”.
All six cases occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms occurring six to 13 days after receiving the shot.
As of now, J&J has said that there is no “clear causal relationship” between these rare events and the vaccine. The US drug giant also said it was working with regulators.
While he expects Moderna and Pfizer to be able to “take over some of this weakness” in the end, Patel stressed “it will take time” for other vaccine manufacturers to have additional doses available in the US
A special challenge with stopping the J&J vaccine is that it requires only one shot, Patel said, while the Moderna and Pfizer mRNA vaccines require two doses to protect total immunity.
“In the next three weeks, we simply can’t replace her,” said Patel, a NBC News contributor and non-resident colleague at the Brookings Institution. “This will delay our vaccination efforts.”
To compensate, the US may want to consider pushing back the administration of two doses for Moderna and Pfizer vaccine recipients, Patel suggested.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief adviser, opposed calls to do so in the earlier moments of the pandemic.
The second dose of Moderna should be given four weeks after the first, while it is three weeks apart for Pfizer.
“You will hear a renewal of calls to delay the second blow, so that we can get as many first blows in the arms as possible. It is not unreasonable to do, to be considered now,” Patel said.
“If we eliminate the two doses of Moderna or Pfizer in a week or two, it could even help us lift some of that weight loss at a faster rate,” she added.