Only 11.8 million doses of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in the U.S., less than 4 percent of the country's total administered shots, The New York Times reported June 18.
When the vaccine was cleared by the FDA in late February, public health officials had high hopes about its potential to serve vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, as it requires only a single dose and has less rigid storage requirements than mRNA vaccines (the design used by Pfizer and Moderna).
The low uptake for Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is a result of Americans' preference for Pfizer and Moderna shots. Many Americans became hesitant to receive Johnson & Johnson's shot after U.S. regulators restricted its rollout on two separate occasions.
The first came in April, when the CDC and FDA recommended the U.S. pause the vaccine's use while they reviewed reports of rare and serious blood clots in people who received the shot. The pause lasted 10 days.
The other setback occurred June 11, when the FDA ordered Johnson & Johnson to throw away 60 million doses of the vaccine because of possible contamination at Emergent BioSolutions' manufacturing plant in Baltimore.