It& #39;s also a high-stakes test for the FDA, and they failed it, because of course lots of people are going to take away the latter message. https://twitter.com/MattGertz/status/1381933962445094916">https://twitter.com/MattGertz...
There& #39;s also data on this based on decreased public confidence in the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe following similar pauses there. So the FDA can& #39;t even use the excuse of flying blind. https://www.politico.eu/article/trust-oxford-astrazeneca-coronavirus-vaccine-wanes-europe-survey/">https://www.politico.eu/article/t...
Also, part of the reason media coverage may be confused is that the FDA& #39;s reasoning isn& #39;t super logical. It probably isn& #39;t rational to pause administration of a vaccine that& #39;s already been given out 7 million times for "extremely rare" events in the middle of a deadly pandemic.
Why did the FDA recommend the pause anyway? Because of a combination of institutional culture, cognitive biases, and bureaucratic imperatives incentives, they greatly overweight the importance of rare adverse effects relative to people dying from COVID.