J&J vaccine output to drop 85%, White House says issues tied to Baltimore facility

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

The U.S. will experience an 85% drop in availability in vaccines by Johnson & Johnson next week compared with this week, and is unlikely to see a steady output from the vaccine maker until the company resolves production issues at a facility in Baltimore, Maryland, according to federal officials and data.

Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus coordinator, told reporters on Friday that the company is still working to address the issues Emergent Biosolutions, which isn’t certified yet by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

But following FDA authorization, Zients said the hope is that the facility will enable to stabilize output to about 8 million doses per week.

J&J said it remains committed to its goal of delivering 100 million doses total by the end of May.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/jandj-vaccine-output-to-drop-85percent-white-house-says-issues-tied-to-baltimore-facility/ar-BB1fuet0?ocid=DELLDHP&li=BBnb7Kz

[Wingus Dingus]

1. That really blows.

The Baltimore factory really screwed us over. Idiots.

[WA-03 Democrat]

3. They caught the problem within the walls inside their plant and keep it there.

They scraped the material and took the loss. Quality controls were set and did their job. They reported it. They are now working with the FDA to get backup. I have run many manufacturing operations globally. No one is perfect and it takes a lot of courage and honest to pull the cord to stop due to an issue and or problem.

They are not idiots and they did their job. The vaccine is new and the process is too. 100,000,000 vaccines delivered and no one has died from the vaccine or died after getting the vaccine and got Covid.

If it makes you feel better to demean people who are literally working for you, keeping all of us safe and alive, please proceed. To me it’s about all about quality.

[LisaL]

4. As far as I can tell, they mixed up J&J and Astrazeneca.

So whatever they made likely wasn't even J&J anymore.
They had not choice but throw it out.

[Midnight Writer]

5. If they made 15 to 65 million doses without detecting a problem, there is a quality problem.

Nobody tested this medicine during all this production to see if they had it right?

There should be random spot checks and testing of medicine all along the production process.

It would benefit both the producers and the consumers.

I know nothing about this process, but I do know to double check my work periodically to make sure I'm not running off course.

Thankfully, apparently none of this was injected into the public. Can you imagine how that would affect a mass inoculation program that is already the victim of conspiracy theories?

[LisaL]

6. And it's not a minor issue.

Per NYT's article, they mixed up viral vectors for J&J and AstraZeneca. So whatever they made probably wasn't even J&J anymore.
They had to throw up 15 million doses. Now they are check if the rest is also "contaminated." As a result, supplies of J&J to the US will fall drastically in coming weeks.

[LisaL]

11. New theory is that

J&J was contaminated with AstraZeneca when employee moved between two sections without showering. I kind of doubt it (would that be enough to contaminate the lot?), but who knows. J&J and AstraZeneca use viral vectors, but those vectors are different between J&J and AstraZeneca. So it's not a minor issue by any means.

"Emergent was forced to discard the Johnson & Johnson doses after checks revealed contamination with a virus used in the production of the AstraZeneca vaccine. An investigation is now underway, but federal and former company officials suspect the lot was tainted because an employee moved from AstraZeneca’s section of the plant to Johnson & Johnson’s without showering and taking other precautions."
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/us/emergent-biosolutions-coronavirus-vaccine.html?auth=login-email&login=email

[FBaggins]

2. May seem less important... because the two alternatives seem preferable to most...

... but this is likely to be the vaccine that saves the rest of the world from COVID. Much cheaper - able to be produced in far higher numbers - and only requires the single dose.

When the focus shifts from the US to the rest of the world... J&J's vaccine is critical. They have to get these issues resolved.

[LisaL]

7. Yes, it's certainly a lot easer to store and administer than Pfizer or Moderna.

NT

[fescuerescue]

8. Trump strikes again

[Baitball Blogger]

9. Bummer.

[Johnny2X2X]

10. People were wondering why Biden ordered more than we'd need

Because this was a matter of life and death and things like this can happen. So Biden ordered more than we needed and then got it manufactured faster and faster. Risk management 101, you hedge your greatest risks.

This still is a set back, not nowhere near as bad as it would have been without Biden paging so hard.