Category: Science

So Johnson & Johnson & the blood clots, how bad is it?

1. Johnson & Johnson takes up only 5% of the vaccination given to people so far, so even a pause on Johnson & Johnson likely won’t affect the vaccination rollout much.
2. The chance of getting blood clots from the J&J vaccine is somewhat equivalent to the chance of getting struck by lightning.
3. Johnson & Johnson is not a bad vaccine at all when we review what scientists hoped for a year ago. It is just the other two vaccines have set the bars too high.
4. The pause is to create time for doctors around the nation to become aware of the condition and develop proper treatment. The usual treatment for blood clotting might make things worse in this particular vaccination complication.
5. There might be more complication cases out there, but just a handful. It won’t be on a different magnitude.
6. We might need a booster in the future depends how variants play out in the future.

Since most of us are going to get the COVID vaccines in the next few months, I started to wonder if the variants are going to make the vaccines less effective. Luckily scientists have been researching the same questions.

P.S: I am going to refer to the variants with their country name because I cannot remember their scientific name. I know it is not the best practice but I am conscious of it.

Vaccines are very effective against the UK and Brazil variants. They are less effective against the South African variant which is now found in 40+ countries. The good news is that vaccines can still make you less sick facing the South African variant.

In terms of what vaccinated people can do, you can definitely hug your vaccinated friends once you get the vaccination. Wearing your mask in public is still a good idea.

I cannot find to get my vaccine and I thoroughly enjoyed how this podcast makes hard science more approachable.

Full Transcript: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vQcV7bXbGVc7FH6lFduk9aN4mBxrtoiLZkQeqPZVZ8wLEQ7a-ZQLLbtP7rC210yvLAepPsCJfH3enrs/pub