Digital cryptocurrency token Shiba Inu has jumped into the top 10 most valuable digital assets by market value, surpassing its inspiration, Dogecoin.
The recent trading frenzy over a digital token called Shiba Inu — commonly promoted as a “meme” or joke coin in the crypto world — has jumped the canine-themed cryptocurrency into the top 10 most valuable digital assets by market value, hitting over $39 billion and surpassing its cousin and apparent inspiration, Dogecoin.
Since Wednesday, both Dogecoin and Shiba have frequently swapped places in the rankings, competing in what many would call a rivalry between the two. In fact, the Shiba Inu community actually refers to the crypto token as the “Dogecoin killer”.
As of Monday afternoon, Dogecoin, which was launched in 2013 as a joke, ranks No. 10 in cryptocurrencies with a market value of over $35 billion, according to CoinGecko. Likewise, Shiba Inu, which launched in 2020 to poke fun at dogecoin, now ranks at No. 9 with a market value of over $39 billion. Shiba Inu hit an all-time high of$0.00008990 this past Monday.
Moreover, Shiba is up another 10 percent at midday this past Monday after its leap last week which had more than doubled in value. With this, most of that gain came in a flurry of trading last Wednesday, when it gained a whopping 66 percent. Besides, Shibu is in fact up about 900 percent in the past month.
Each Shiba coin costs just a tiny fraction of one cent; however, to put in simpler terms: if you were to have bought $1,000 worth of Shiba Inu in late September, your value of 20 million coins would now be worth around $9,000.
Both Shiba’s and Dogecoin’s growth can be largely credited to supporters hyping them up. It is the power of the people who are intensifying them that drives the performance of the coin a lot of the time, including celebrity supporters like billionaire Elon Musk, CEO of SpaceX and Tesla. Musk often tweets about different cryptocurrencies, and in doing so, has seemingly impacted their prices.
Overall, the current surge in Shiba Inu can be seen as very much community-driven, and it is clear to see any token or coin out there has the opportunity to run up like this if someone with a big microphone is amplifying it — case in point is Shiba Inu. Created in August 2020, it has taken less than two years to become a contender for a top 10 cryptocurrency spot.
Despite ongoing pandemic concerns, U.S. consumer spending on Halloween is set to be higher than ever within the past five years.
An estimated two thirds or 65 percent of Americans intend to celebrate Halloween or participate in Halloween activities this year, up from 58 percent in 2020 and more comparable with 68 percent in 2019 before the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend demonstrates that Halloween is back on the schedule this year and plenty of Americans want trick-or-treaters, decorations and new costumes.
According to research from the National Retail Federation, U.S. consumer seasonal spending this year is forecasted to be $10.14 billion, up from $8.05 billion last year in 2020, $8.78 billion in 2019, $8.97 billion in 2018 and $9.09 billion in 2017. The top ways consumers are planning to celebrate the holiday include handing out candy (66 percent), decorating their home or yard (52 percent), dressing in costumes (46 percent), carving a pumpkin (44 percent) and hosting or attending a party (25 percent).
The association’s annual survey was carried out on its behalf by Prosper Insights and Analytics and analyzed celebration plans. Its findings presented 93 percent of millennial parents would be seeking to go all out for the holiday, particularly after last year in which many celebrations were restricted amid the pandemic; however, caution has been urged by health authorities, with the U.S. having the highest death toll from the pandemic in the world, with over 750,000 lost to Covid-19 since the start of the crisis that began early last year.
With more Americans celebrating Halloween this year, average spending is also up. For example, on average, consumers plan to spend $102.74 on costumes, candy, decorations and greeting cards – $10 more than what was planned last year. In addition, households with children are estimated to spend more than twice the amount than households without children ($149.69 compared with $73.57) this Halloween holiday. Likewise, the number of Americans planning to decorate for Halloween differentiates with last year’s spike in interest, with spending on decorations forecasted to climb to $3.17 billion, up from last year’s $2.59 billion. Totalspending on costumes is the highest it has been since 2017 at $3.10 billion.
Of those planning to dress up for Halloween, nearly 69 percent of adults already know what their costume will be this year. More than 4.6 million adults plan to dress like a witch, more than 1.6 million as a vampire, more than 1.4 million as a ghost, more than 1.1 million as a cat and another 1.1 million as a pirate. Notably, more than 1.8 million children plan to dress as Spiderman, more than 1.6 million as their favorite princess, more than 1.2 million as Batman and more than 1.2 million will dress as one of their other favorite superheroes. All in all, it is very apparent that Halloween forecasts this year prove Americans want to spend way more on trick-or-treaters, decorations and new costumes.
Robert Allen Stanford, a name that would rise to infamy, was born in Mexia, Texas on March 24, 1950. As a youth, Stanford once made $400 to clear an area of land for real estate developers and in exchange, he received cutdown trees that he could sell as firewood. After graduating from Baylor University, Stanford worked for Stanford Financial, a company that his grandfather founded as a salesman and bookkeeper. Stanford, with his talents in finding opportunities, transformed Stanford Financial into a multi-billion-dollar company owning $51 billion in investments. During the 1983 Texas oil bubble burst, Stanford traveled to Latin America and later set up shop in Antigua. Similar to all wealthy and successful people, Allen Stanford explored lobbying in the realm of politics; two lawmakers, Bob Ney and Tom DeLay, resigned as a result of his lobbying. It can be argued that his time in Antigua may have been the most successful years for him. Stanford led an extraordinary life which would eventually catch up with him.
After years of legitimacy, Allen Stanford went the unsavory route of scamming innocent people. Stanford’s plan was simple: tell investors that investing with him will lead to no risk and high returns and support it with a believable story. To hide his fraud, Stanford sent out fake financial reports. Stanford’s investors’ investments included securities such as certificates of deposits with interest rates double the average rate of the market. The average person would give Stanford their money because doing so appealed to their sense of financial security.
As far as Ponzi schemes go, the most notable and infamous one is Bernie Madoff. He scammed his investors roughly $20 billion while telling his clients their investments were valued to be at $60 billion. Madoff pleaded guilty and received a 150-year sentence. The second largest Ponzi scheme in history is that of Allen Stanford. Stanford sold high yield certificate deposits to 18,000 people from 113 countries where he ran a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme. Stanford was eventually caught in 2009 and assigned a 110-year sentence starting in 2012. In June 2016, Ralph Janvey, a court-appointed receiver, obtained $65 million in a settlement. Out of the $7 billion in Stanford’s bank, only $63 million was uncovered at the start of the receivership. In other words,only 0.95 percent of that $7 billion was found. Already, $443 million has been given out to Stanford’s victims while another $550 million will be distributed in quarter one of 2022. This $1 billion recovery also happens to be the second largest amount in history, with Bernie Madoff’s victims recovering $11 billion.
Malik Mitchell, ‘17 started his own sports marketing agency earlier this year and prides himself on providing high quality services to every one of his clients.
Jan. 8, 2021 was an important day for La Salle alumni Malik Mitchell: it was the day he officially started his business, Kool Vibe Sports (KVS). In nine months, Mitchell and his associates at KVS have grown to offer top-of-the-line sports marketing services to clients such as Zech McPhearson and Milton Williams of the Philadelphia Eagles and Sandro Platzgummer of the New York Giants, to name a few. Mitchell prides himself on being attuned to his clients’ needs, offering services such as contract negotiations, endorsement deals, media relations and more. He even recently helped one of his clients move to another apartment — a testament to how much he cares. Mitchell states that he and his team at KVS tirelessly work toward “maximizing client earnings and empowering athletes to own their talent on and off the field. He does all of this while working full time for South Jersey Gas in their marketing department.
Mitchell graduated from La Salle in 2017 with a degree in marketing. After graduation, Mitchell often communicated with one of his high school friends, Eli Apple, a cornerback for the Cincinnati Bengals. Apple and Mitchell would often discuss marketing opportunities for Apple to continue to build his brand. Mitchell realized: he was this football player’s go-to man for marketing advice, so he put those skills to use in the professional field. Fast forward a few years, and Mitchell founded Kool Vibe Sports, where he handles all off-field marketing and advises his clients, just as he did for his old friend, Eli.
He does this with the help of two crucial elements: passion and a dedicated team. Mitchell played football for more than ten years and brings that passion for the sport to his business, day-in and day-out. After graduation, Mitchell went on to create his own social media marketing company, “Malik Mitchell Marketing,” with clients ranging from a pharmaceutical firm to a barber shop. His Lasallian education coupled with his on-the-job training in social media marketing allow him to deliver an unparalleled experience to his clients throughout their career. His passion for sports combined with his know-how of marketing make him a valuable player within the field of sports marketing.
Mitchell isn’t the only La Salle alumni with a passion for sports marketing. Adam (A.C.) Bartley, ‘15, Brandon Rowe, ‘17, Jauwan Marant, ‘17, and Kathlyn Martin, ‘17, are also alumni of the La Salle marketing and communication programs, and all currently work alongside their good friend Mitchell at KVS. Mitchell, Rowe, Bartley and Marant all met within their first few weeks as La Salle students and immediately bonded over their shared interests and ambitions. Mitchell and Martin are college sweethearts and got married right after college. Mitchell had a vision for his business and his team helps him make this vision a reality by bringing their unique skills to the table.
After graduation, Bartley worked as a financial analyst and continually brings his go-getter mentality to every business venture at KVS. Rowe’s photography skills help him provide creative direction to their clients. Overall, all the employees at KVS share Mitchell’s vision of providing high quality sports marketing services to each and every one of their clients.
One of the greatest things about starting your own business is that “you could work for yourself for the rest of your life,” said Mitchell. But being your own boss comes with hours of hard work, planning and perseverance, according to Mitchell. When he’s not working full time at South Jersey Gas, Mitchell is thinking about ways he can enhance the quality of service he provides to his clients.
His advice to those interested in starting their own business? Create a plan. Set goals for yourself and outline the objectives that will ensure you accomplish those goals. It’s also important to measure your success along the way. Mitchell only officially started KVS in January of this year, but his diligence with measuring his success every step along the way is part of the reason why KVS has grown so much in such a short period of time. Working for yourself and with your friends is a great thing, and it comes with lots of planning and hard work.
Channeling your passion, building a great team and spending time to develop a comprehensive business plan are just three key elements of starting your own business. For Mitchell, it is also important to remember where he came from. He cites his parents as his mentors; as shining examples of the power of hard work, dedication and love. He also recalls his time spent in LA with his good friend Eli Apple, who showed him that he has a knack for sports marketing. He maintains close relationships with his friends and colleagues he met during his time at La Salle. With all this in mind, Malik Mitchell is dedicated to growing his business and providing top quality services to his clients.
This Lasallian alumnus is making a name for himself in the field of sports management and marketing, and he encourages readers interested in what he does to reach out at malik@koolvibesports.com. If you are interested in sports marketing, don’t hesitate to connect with Mitchell — he would love to help out his fellow Lasallians, and his insight is truly invaluable.
The Federal Reserve concluded its September meeting and announced plans that it may soon begin the process of slowing its asset purchases.
This past Tuesday, Sept. 21, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) held its sixth meeting of the year in Washington, D.C. that included some highly anticipated news. At the meeting, the Fed announced that the economy has made progress toward its goal of maximum employment and price stability, and that if development continues, the FOMC will soon taper their securities. The Fed has maintained its current strategy for now, but the statement of potentially looming asset tapering is a substantial change from past meetings.
Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell noted in his press conference that he decided to put off the unpleasant business of announcing when the Fed will peel back its bond purchases — a process known as tapering — as too many economic uncertainties flourish. Such security purchases have been a key part of the economic recovery during the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, those policies helped stabilize the economy, and they have since been a crucial part of the Fed’s accommodating monetary policy stance.
However, Powell stated that “if progress continues broadly as expected, the committee judges that a moderation in the pace of asset purchases may soon be warranted,” adding together that if the economy remains on path, this situation could result in a gradual tapering process that wraps up by mid-2022. With this, the tapering of asset purchasing could begin soon, meaning the Fed’s long-promised signaling has arrived; nevertheless, Powell has still yet to commit to a specific timeline.
Powell also indicated that growth made with inflation is still not a long-term concern, even as the Summary of Economic Projections (SEP) includes a higher median inflation forecast for 2021 than June’s SEP. Powell’s personal view halted that the assessment for significant progress to employment has been “all but met.”
The SEP announced this month reflects the Fed’s awareness of current economic conditions. The FOMC’s mean inflation expectations for 2021 grew from 3.4 percent in June to 4.2 percent in the latest forecast; however, Powell has insisted that the committee looks at inflation as transitory due to pandemic-related supply factors. For instance, he cited the automotive industry’s supply chain issues in particular during the September press conference.
The meeting concluded with no members of the FOMC predicting a change to the federal funds rate in 2021, but more of them now anticipate an increase in intensity in 2022 relative to June’s predictions. The 18 participants are equally split between anticipating a small boost to the federal funds rate in 2022 and expecting a rate change in 2023 or later.
Between November and January, retail sales are expected to rise by eight percent from last year, according to the professional service network Deloitte’s holiday retail forecast. On top of that, Deloitte also said that e-commerce sales are expected to rise by up to 15 percent. Given the growing labor shortage, holiday shopping might be a much bigger headache this season, for both the consumer and the retail suppliers.
According to Melissa Hassett of the staffing agency ManpowerGroup Talent Solutions, “Hiring intention in the upcoming quarter is higher than ever.” Potential employees can anticipate benefits such as debt-free bachelors degrees, higher wages, quadruple-digit sign-on bonuses and more. Walmart is even offering ACT and SAT prep courses for free to high school employees. Last week NBC’s Leticia Miranda said, “Amazon announced that it will hire 125,000 employees at an average starting wage of $18 per hour with a $3,000 sign-on bonus.” In a move that is very telling of the times, Best Buy is hosting a virtual job fair, seeking to fill more than 5,000 positions.
Over the summer, restaurant chain Denny’s equipped a 53-foot kitchen truck to travel the country in a nationwide hiring effort. McDonald’s introduced a child care program to attract potential employees with kids. Additionally, McDonald’s announced a 10 percent increase in wages for hourly workers in May. The following month, the fast food chain had its “largest month of hires in the last couple of years,” according to McDonald’s U.S. Chief People Officer Tiffanie Boyd. Employers are desperate for workers; in recent months, “the bargaining power and the labor market has shifted toward job seekers,” according to Nick Bunker, economic research director for North America at the Indeed Hiring Lab.
For months, federal pandemic unemployment benefits offered people a more attractive alternative to working in a retail environment; they could make more by filing for unemployment than most companies were willing to pay them. Last week, most of these benefits expired. Despite this, retailers are still having a difficult time filling positions. On average, it takes 40 days to fill a retail position, a 21 percent increase from April this year, according to talent cloud company iCIMS. Another factor that makes people hesitant to go back to work is the concern regarding contracting COVID-19. Companies have introduced extremely attractive benefits in order to combat pandemic-induced unemployment, but it seems that health remains the main concern, a concern that will undoubtedly change the way we shop this holiday season.
Pictured above is Berkshire Hathaway’s chairman and CEO Warren Buffet and Executive Vice Chairman Charlie Munger. Both men practice a value investing strategy and have created impressive returns for their shareholders.
Over the weekend, Berkshire Hathaway held their annual shareholder meeting in Los Angeles, California. For the first time ever in the company’s long history, they held a shareholder meeting outside of Omaha, Nebraska. The meeting was headed by Berkshire’s executive staff, CEO and Chairman Warren Buffet and Executive Vice Chairman Charlie Munger.
Both Buffett and Munger are hailed as some of the greatest investors of all time. They believe in a value investing strategy influenced by the principles of Benjamin Graham. Graham is most famous for developing the Margin of Safety principle and for writing the finance classic “The Intelligent Investor.” In addition, they are greatly influenced by the strategies of Phil Fisher, the author of “Common Stocks and Uncommon Profits”whofamously believed the best time to sell a stock is never. Buffett and Munger emphasize a long-term investing strategy with an emphasis of finding “cheap” companies that appear to be trading below book value in the market. They own portions of great American corporations like Coca-Cola, Apple, Bank of America, Verizon and American Express.
At the meeting, Buffett and Munger fielded and answered various questions. With their growing age, they confirmed their eventual successor: Greg Abel, a current Vice Chairman, will take over as CEO and direct operations. Buffet emphasized his belief around stock picking for the average investor. He stated, “I do not think the average person can pick stocks.” His suggestion, instead, was to diversify into American equities and purchase a fund which follows the performance of the S&P 500. Buffet has made this point plenty of times in the past.
Both Buffett and Munger took jabs at the recent rise in SPACs and believe more people are turning to the market in a gambling-like sense. Buffet even went as far as calling SPACs an “exaggerated form of gambling.” A SPAC is a company that raises money through an initial public offering (IPO) with no commercial operations to acquire another existing company. They grew in popularity in 2020 as both a speculative investment and a way for companies to raise capital.
To add to the sense of increased gambling in the markets, Buffett and Munger stated their opinions about online trading app Robinhood. They both said the app encourages gambling due to the easy access of speculative call and put options. Munger even called the app shameful. In the past, they criticized Robinhood’s selling of order flow data and commission free trades. An executive from Robinhood responded by saying “the people are tired of the Buffets and Mungers of the world acting like they are the only oracles of investing.” The most controversial statement of the weekend was when Munger took a strong jab at cryptocurrency. He went so far as to say Bitcoin’s success is disgusting and contrary to the interests of civilization. In the past he has called Bitcoin “worthless artificial gold.”
The meeting concluded and many people took an opportunity to analyze both Buffet and Munger’s statements. Both men have led Berkshire for decades with expectational investment returns and their statements may prove important for investors looking for guidance.
“There may be advantages to providing greater clarity on the scope of the safe harbor in the PSLRA (Private Securities Litigation Reform Act). Congress could not have predicted the wave of SPACs in which we find ourselves. It may be time to revisit these issues.” – Jon Coates, Acting Director, Division of Corporation Finance (SEC)
Coindesk
The SEC’s Acting Director of Corporation Finance, Jon Coates, has called on Congress to reign in SPACs and tighten regulatory disclosure requirements on the “blank check” companies.
What used to be a niche investment vehicle that served as an alternative for privately-held companies to enter public markets is now regarded as a market craze, a change that has taken place amid the historic, pandemic-induced 2020 market crash. Companies looking to go public partnered with SPACs to take advantage of markets flush with capital but volatile amid the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic. Unfortunately though, SPAC moguls, like Bill Ackman, who the Collegian covered in its Feb 10 issue, are learning that, like all good things, the SPAC craze must too come to an end.
SPAC markets have taken a sharp downturn in recent months, and even more trouble is on the horizon due, in large part, to heightened regulatory scrutiny for the investment vehicle. John Coates, the SEC’s Acting Director, Division of Corporation Finance, released a statement on the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) website sounding alarms on the SPAC surge. The SEC’s statement, SPACs, IPOs and Liability Risk under the Securities Laws, contained verbiage that has likely contributed to the recent downturn in SPAC markets. The SEC is now eyeing SPACs for the potential they have to mislead investors as they have significantly less disclosure requirements than a traditional IPO would have.
In the statement, Coates discusses how 25 years ago, the path to public markets for a company was fairly simple and one-tracked and, with the innovations markets have today, there should be regulation to follow along with it. “With all these changes, the appeal of understanding and developing law around economic substance over form may be greater than ever.” Coates talks about how initial public offerings are a “distinct and challenging moment for disclosure” for companies undergoing them for good reason. “An IPO is where the protections of the federal security laws are typically most needed to overcome the information asymmetries between a new investment opportunity and investors in the newly public company,” says Coates.
Coates ends the statement by calling for legislative bodies to consider imposing tighter requirements that would target the second phase of a SPAC transaction, otherwise known as the “de-SPAC,” where a target company is acquired and original investors in the SPAC typically unload their shares into the secondary market. Coates calls on authorities to treat the de-SPAC transaction as the “real IPO.” “It is the de-SPAC as much as any other element of the process on which we should focus the full panoply of federal securities law protections — including those that apply to traditional IPOs.” Heightened regulatory pressures have further depressed SPAC markets that have already been reeling in recent months. The proposed regulation could increase disclosure costs for the blank-check companies which already face tough competition from private equity firms when hunting for target companies.
A SPAC index across 210 different companies, made up of 60 percent public companies derived from SPACs and 40 percent pre-IPO SPACs, “Indxx SPAC & NextGen IPO Index,” has fallen 24.87 percent since the SPAC market’s February highs. New accounting guidelines issued by Jon Coates and Acting Chief Accountant of the SEC, Paul Munter, have helped to grind SPAC markets to a halt as well. The statement, which read, “OCA (Office of the Chief Accountant) staff concluded that – the tender offer provision would require the warrants to be classified as a liability measured at fair value, with changes in fair value reported each period in earnings,” has the potential to impact newly issued SPACs and companies that have already gone public through a SPAC transaction. Proponents of the investment vehicle are eyeing financial regulators to see what moves they will make to tighten regulations around the investment vehicle. Eyes will surely be on the SEC in the coming months to see how they choose to advance their agenda as laid out by John Coates.
Pictured above is Tesla CEO, Elon Musk. In late March, Musk announced via Twitter that Tesla cars may be bought with bitcoin and any bitcoin Tesla receives as revenue will not be converted to fiat currency.
All the recent rage in the financial markets is related to cryptocurrency. It appears almost daily one can see a crypto-related news headline. Just two weeks ago a “meme” cryptocurrency known as dogecoin reached an all-time high, netting some traders thousands of dollars. In addition, just yesterday, Tesla announced they sold $272 million worth of bitcoin (BTC) during the first quarter.
Cryptocurrency is defined as an unregulated digital currency that uses an online ledger to track ownership to buy and sell goods. An idea of unregulated digital currency drives the enthusiasm behind crypto and many investors view the currency as digital cash that cannot be traced. The most popular cryptocurrency is Bitcoin. Bitcoin utilizes complex blockchain technology to track ownership and manage trading. Some investors see Bitcoin as a store of value and an alternative to physical gold while others view it solely as currency to buy and sell goods.
Bitcoin has grown tremendously since its inception in 2009 and has experienced widespread interest since last March when the pandemic and stay-at-home orders forced millions into lockdown. Much of Bitcoin’s rise is attributed to retail investors, but institutional investors are involved with the commodity. Big-name financial companies and fintech players like Square and MicroStrategy have used cash to purchase bitcoin. Even asset management fund Fidelity has jumped in and intends to release an ETF to track BTC benchmarks. Bitcoin’s market cap is currently valued at over $1 trillion.
Tesla’s CEO, Elon Musk, has spoken countless times about cryptocurrency and his company’s offer to accept Bitcoin as payment for their cars. In February of 2021, Tesla bought $1.5 billion of Bitcoin. They stated in SEC filings that the purpose of the purchase was to gain a better return on their cash, but they did warn investors of the price volatility involved with the purchase. According to Tesla’s Q1 earnings report, total revenue grew year-over-year by 74 percent. Tesla’s GAAP net income reached $438 million while non-GAAP net income was over $1 billion. Also, Tesla reported more deliveries of their car products. Musk made the Bitcoin purchase to emphasize the liquidity involved with the coin.
As cryptocurrency becomes more widespread, regulators and government officials are left scratching their heads. They must decide how to regulate the crypto market. India had a ban on cryptocurrency which has been reversed in March of this year. Turkey has banned cryptocurrency. Back home in the United States, Bitcoin faces some regulation by organizations like the SEC, the Fed and the CFTC. The IRS taxes Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as property. Janet Yellen, the current Treasury Secretary, believes Bitcoin is an “extremely inefficient” way to conduct monetary transactions. Overall, many regulators are going to have to find an agreement and decide how to regulate the coin.
As Bitcoin grows in popularity and many people look to the future, we must be cautious of the recent rapid rise in its price and remember the history of financial booms and busts. Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market have the potential to fully take over our lives. Bitcoin can be as useful as the American dollar in the next few decades or can be remembered like the tulip bulb of 1637.
The administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was paused due to cases of rare blood clots associated with those who received the shot.
On April 20th, Johnson & Johnson announced that the European Medicines Agency’s Pharmacovigilance Risk Assessment Committee (PRAC) reviewed the company’s vaccine and confirmed that the overall benefit-risk profile remains positive.
In recent months, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine has been linked to a small number of cases of blood clots in combination with low platelet counts. These cases, though small in number, were enough to draw international concern. The EMA made it clear on Tuesday that there is some validity to these links between Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and blood clots. Moreover, in a press release, the EMA stated “that a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelets should be added to the product information for COVID-19 Vaccine Janssen.”
The EMA relied on all available evidence, it said, which included eight U.S. reports of serious blood clot cases. As of April 7th, more than 7 million people had received the J&J vaccine in the United States.
The linkage between the vaccine and blood clots is not unique to Johnson & Johnson. In March, more than a dozen European countries halted the use of the AstraZeneca shot after some people who received the vaccine reported experiences of blood clots. 18 of these cases turned out to be fatal, compared to only one case of fatality linked to the Johnson & Johnson shot. The EMA stated that “unusual blood clots with low platelets” should be listed as “very rare side effects” for the AstraZeneca vaccine.
On Friday, April 23rd, vaccine advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet to make recommendations regarding the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. They will be meeting less than two weeks after the CDC and US Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause on the use of the Janssen vaccine. The pause gave experts time to work with doctors regarding the identification and treatment of these rare blood clots.
Moreover, ranking members at the CDC project said that “there will likely be more reports of blood clots connected to the vaccine” (Mascarenhas, CNN). Dr. William Schaffner, a non-voting member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, stated that he and his colleagues need to understand the demographics of blood clot cases before they can move forward with a decision. Dr. Schaffner said that on Friday, the ACIP could give the all-clear for the vaccine, or it could recommend that the US stop using the vaccine entirely. Dr. Schaffner thinks it is likely that the ACIP will recommend the use continues with warnings about possible adverse side effects. Additionally, Dr. Schaffner says it is wise for high-risk people to avoid the vaccine altogether.
The chair of the ACIP, Dr. Jose Romero, who is also Arkansas’ secretary of health, says that the committee has reviewed enough data at this point to make a responsible decision. Although more data will be presented on Friday, Dr. Romero believes that the committee will likely affirm the vaccine’s legitimacy after estimating the risk-benefit analysis. However, there are currently so few cases of blood clots that it is hard to assess the entire picture of risk. For example, all but one case were in females; some members of the ACIP are concerned that cases among men or older people might arise in the near future. The ACIP would benefit from more data in the form of blood clot cases, but those looking to receive the vaccine might not benefit.
Dr. Romero stated, “I really hope that the American public will look at this pause and look at what we have done during this pause as an indication of how safe the vaccine system and the vaccine pipeline is in this country.”
The La Salle Collegian 