Waiting on the J&J vaccine? Things just got worse...

[rjmacs]

Human error at a Baltimore, MD manufacturing facility ruined 15 million doses of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson covid-19 vaccine. The full story is on the NYT, but here's a summary if you don't have Times access. This may cause major delays in delivery of the J&J vaccine, one of only three approved for use in the United States.

[GGD]

On the plus side, at least nobody needs a second dose of J&J, so a shortage won't impact anyone who already go it. If supply of Pfizer or Moderna suddenly dried up it could be a big mess for those waiting for the second dose.

[Pam]

Great. Trying like heck to find one.

[sekker]

Hard to bring new technologies to market and at scale. Glad they admitted the issue.

[mrbigstuff]

Fifteen million? I feel like this is a Dr Evil scene, you'd a thunk there would be a mechanism to check after x thousands are produced.

[rjmacs]

sekker wrote:
Hard to bring new technologies to market and at scale. Glad they admitted the issue.

The company that was producing the precursors, Emergent BioSolutions, has been cited by the FDA numerous times in recent years for manufacturing problems, including plant contamination and "for failing to train employees 'in the particular operations they perform as part of their function and current good manufacturing practices.'"

This is also a bloody nose for Gov. Larry Hogan (R-MD), who trumpeted Emergent's role in producing the J&J vaccine earlier in the year. His legacy on the pandemic and vaccine rollout has been pretty tarnished already, and this is another mark on his spotty record.

[$tevie]

A friend of mine said the problem was they added Old Bay. We like Old Bay on everything, you know.

[RgrF]

$tevie wrote:
A friend of mine said the problem was they added Old Bay. We like Old Bay on everything, you know.

Is that like the culinary equivalent of Old Spice?