Echelon Insights has released a poll gauging Americans’ perceptions of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause:
A quick check-in with U.S. adults reveals that contrary to the prevailing view on Twitter, the decision to pause the J&J vaccine💉 due to a small number of blood clotting issues actually makes Americans more, not less, confident in the COVID-19 vaccines. pic.twitter.com/S8KtiVyOXR
— Echelon Insights (@EchelonInsights) April 14, 2021
I’m not sure that the tweet accurately describes what this data is telling us. Are the 58 percent comprised mostly of people who already trusted the vaccines, or those who were skeptical? I suspect it’s the former. If that’s the case, the pause hasn’t done much good. And what about the 43 percent who are either unsure or are feeling less confident? My guess is that these are the folks who were already on the fence.
Moreover, do most Americans have all of the information provided in the question Echelon asked? Do they know that administration of the vaccine has come to a standstill over only six cases of blood-clotting potentially caused by the vaccine, and that that’s out of nearly seven million doses? Or do they just know that the Food and Drug Administration has called for a halt because of dangerous side effects definitely caused by the vaccine?
These numbers are at first glance better than I might have expected, but I also think they’re probably worse than they appear at first glance.
