Trump lays out theory on why federal gov't has paused Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Two federal agencies on Tuesday called a halt to the use of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine following reports that six people — out of 7 million — suffered potentially dangerous blood clots.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration announced the clots occurred six to 13 days after vaccination.

"The clots occurred in veins that drain blood from the brain and occurred together with low platelets, the fragments in blood that normally form clots. All six cases were in women between the ages of 18 and 48. One person died, and all of the cases remain under investigation," The Associated Press reported.

More than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given in the U.S., the vast majority with no or mild side effects.

The CDC and FDA said the pause in using the vaccine will likely be short-lived.

But former PresidentTrump had his own theory about why the vaccine has been pulled.

"The Biden administration did a terrible disservice to people throughout the world by allowing the FDA and CDC to call a 'pause' in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine," Trump said in a statement. "The results of this vaccine have been extraordinary but now its reputation will be permanently challenged.

"The people who have already taken the vaccine will be up in arms, and perhaps all of this was done for politics or perhaps it’s the FDA’s love for Pfizer. The FDA, especially with long time bureaucrats within, has to be controlled. They should not be able to do such damage for possibly political reasons, or maybe because their friends at Pfizer have suggested it."

Trump also said: "They'll do things like this to make themselves look important. Remember, it was the FDA working with Pfizer, who announced the vaccine approval two days after the 2020 presidential election. They didn’t like me very much because I pushed them extremely hard. But if I didn’t, you wouldn’t have a vaccine for three to five years, or maybe not at all. It takes them years to act!

"Do your testing, clean up the record, and get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine back online quickly. The only way we defeat the China Virus is with our great vaccines!"