When I said a year ago that people should not use J&J but rather Moderna or Pfizer, all the people here on the left told me I was nuts and biased. J&J was equally as good. Funny thing is that I was following the science. They weren't. They were arguing for J&J on political grounds as many of their other arguments. So now that I've been proven right, none of those early naysayers have spoken up to acknowledge their error. Figures.
Despite your self-congratulatory statement, nothing that you said above is true. When the current vaccines were newly available and in high demand and short supply and clinical trial efficacy data was all that was available, the suggestion that people might want to wait until an mRNA vaccine was available, rather than take whatever the first vaccine might be that was available to them, was stupid and dangerous and in no way following science—or even simple common sense for that matter.
COVID-19 was a new, deadly, and highly transmissible viral disease when the vaccines arrived. ALL of the vaccines had proven in clinical trials to be extremely effective at preventing severe disease and death, the mRNA vaccines had somewhat higher efficacy in preventing mild cases. Suggesting that someone risk hospitalization or death while waiting for a preferred vaccine brand is highly illustrative of why no one should give any weight to online comments when looking for medical advice.
Also, at that time, the only data available was efficacy from clinical trials. No one had any idea what the long-term real world effectiveness might be for any of the vaccines or what type of rare side effects might surface over time among a larger population. Time and again, when the difference between known clinical trial efficacy and the unknown of real world effectiveness was pointed out, you deliberately and stubbornly refused to acknowledge that there was any difference and ignored the science. You had the same response to others pointing out the difficulty of comparing clinical trials conducted at different times and places with different variants of the disease.
There was NOTHING political about the discussion—nothing whatever. The discussion was about the risk of contracting a disease which could cause hospitalization or death versus the benefit of being vaccinated at the earliest opportunity. You didn't suggest that people should avoid the J&J vaccine due to extremely rare side effects, which is the reason for CDC now recommending mRNA vaccines; in addition, CDC noted that mRNA vaccines are in plentiful supply now. So, what is your claim of following and being vindicated by science based on?—absolutely nothing.
At the time of the discussion you refer to, there was
no discussion of rare side effects with any of the vaccines authorized for use in the U.S., including the J&J vaccine, as none were known. There is now evidence, after millions of doses have been administered across a broad spectrum of the population, of
extremely rare side effects—blood clots with viral vector vaccines (J&J and AstraZeneca) and Myocarditis and Pericarditis with mRNA vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna). The benefits of
all of these vaccines far outweigh any risk from very rare side effects which is why they
all remain available to the public.
The new CDC recommendation is for individuals to take one of the mRNA vaccines due to extremely rare blood clot events. They still
continue to recommend the J&J vaccine to those who, for whatever reason, do not want to take an mRNA vaccine.
"Given the current state of the pandemic both here and around the world, the ACIP reaffirmed that receiving any vaccine is better than being unvaccinated. Individuals who are unable or unwilling to receive an mRNA vaccine will continue to have access to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine." That's the CDC recommendation and risk/benefit analysis based on science, reason, and simple common sense.
Your self-satisfaction aside, you didn't follow or attempt to understand the science then and you've consistently attacked scientific experts and public health agencies that do follow and understand the science. Your self-proclaimed victory of being "proven right" is as hollow as your comprehension and knowledge of basic science. "Figures."
