FDA tells Johnson & Johnson to throw out 60 million potentially contaminated COVID vaccines

The Food and Drug Administration on Friday ordered Johnson & Johnson to discard 60 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccines due to possible contamination.

The agencg determined several batches of the vaccine made in an Emergent BioSolutions factory in Baltimore were possibly contaminated. The agency plans to allow about 10 million good doses of the vaccine to be distributed in the U.S. or to other countries, according to The New York Times.

The plant in Baltimore has received several violations and once previously ruined 15 million vaccine does during a mixup with AstraZeneca vaccines in March.

The agency has been working for weeks to develop a solution after the March mixup of vaccines at the plant. The mixup caused 100 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be put on hold, along with at least 170 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

The loss of 60 million doses of vaccine puts a dent in Biden's plan to distribute vaccines to other countries. Biden is expected to announce the U.S. will give 500 million vaccines to countries hit hardest by the pandemic.