Biden owns the Johnson & Johnson debacle

Let’s take this step-by-step, Save Jerseyans. The timeline is simple:

January 20, 2021: Joe Biden is inaugurated as America’s 46th president.

Biden’s first five weeks: Newly-minted POTUS Biden focuses on destroying women’s sports, government funded abortion, and a number of other far-Left priorities (the important stuff!), but he declines to fill hundreds of federal positions INCLUDING appointing a new head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Late February 2021: We read a report of blood clot conditions in Johnson & Johnson vaccine volunteers. 15 of them.

February 27, 2021: The FDA grants emergency use authorization for the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine.

April 13, 2021: The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is being paused after 6 out of 7 million (six, not 60, 600 or 6,000) reportedly developed blood clots. Here’s the New Jersey-based company’s release if you’re curious.

Anyone familiar with how government works (or doesn’t work more accurately) knows that interim department heads are like glorified babysitters: they simply don’t get the same level of respect from the kids as mom or dad. We still don’t have a new FDA head. We did get a new CDC chief who is most famous at present for getting choked up during a live stream. So… did something go wrong on the back end? Something which might have been caught or addressed if a permanent regime was in place weeks or even months ago? We need answers. 

My personal opinion on the “pause” will annoy some of you so sorry in advance: we’re talking about 6 cases out of 7 million here. You have a better chance of getting killed by a car while crossing the street than becoming seriously ill from the J&J vaccine.  Worthy of further inquiry? Of course. Should the public be fully informed? Absolutely. But I worry this “pause” is an overreaction that’s going to add fuel to the anti-vax fire.

The Biden Administration initially undermined confidence in vaccinations during the 2020 campaign; Kamala Harris infamously declared “if Donald Trump tells us to take it, I’m not taking it” during a live debate. They may have just done it again owing to their incompetence and misplaced priorities, and yet the Left and their Media allies will continue to scapegoat Republicans who don’t want to wear masks as the culprits behind new cases. Of course!

By the way: the official Biden Administration response this morning is a verbal shrug. They have plenty of other vaccine doses so no big deal! But Phil Murphy and others hailed it as a “game changer” a short time ago. It’s almost as if the Trump vaccine rollout was being deliberately talked-down. I know, I know… crazy talk!

I’m not here to win the vaccine debate, folks. I’m only trying to highlight the obvious:

Any way you slice it – whether you’re pro-pause, anti-pause, or anti-vaccine altogether – Joe Biden owns this latest debacle. In its entirety. And any dip in vaccine confidence coming out of this thing can’t be credibly laid at the feet of the Orange Man.

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Save Jersey’s Founder and Blogger-in-Chief, MATT ROONEY is a nationally-noted and respected New Jersey political commentator. When he’s not on-line, radio or television advocating for conservative reform and challenging N.J. power-brokers, Matt is a practicing attorney at the law firm of DeMichele & DeMichele in Haddon Heights (Camden County).

Matt Rooney
About Matt Rooney 8405 Articles
MATT ROONEY is SaveJersey.com's founder and editor-in-chief, a practicing New Jersey attorney, and the host of 'The Matt Rooney Show' on 1210 WPHT every Sunday evening from 7-10PM EST.