Thread by @miamalan

[Thread]. 1. The FDA has announced 60 million doses of #JnJ produced by the manufacturer Emergent Biosolutions in Baltimore are unsuitable for use and therefore have to be destroyed. What does that mean for South Africa? bit.ly/3xieQps

2. SA has procured 31.2 million #JnJ doses. At least 2 million of those doses were sent to Aspen in Gqeberha to put into vials and packaged. These doses were made from batches of ingredients that the FDA investigated for quality.

3. Are the 2 million doses in Gqeberha among the 60 million which are unsuitable for use? The FDA has not yet released a report with the batch nrs, so we don't yet know, but the hlth dpt has been told that some of the doses will almost certainly be affected.

4. When will we know? The hlth dpt hopes to receive a full FDA report tonight. They will then issue a statement with details on which batches we can't use.

5. What about the 480 000 extra doses we're getting for teachers and school staff? Good news: That batch may not be affected, several sources in the hlth dpt have been told. Once that is confirmed, we're likely to be able to fly the batch to SA over the weekend.

6. The 480 000 doses for teachers + school staff has an expiry date of June 28. But the FDA has extended the shelf life of #JnJ from 3 to 4.5 months, so it's likely that those jabs could last for longer. But our regulator, Sahpra, first has to approve the extended shelf life.

7. So what will happen to our 2 million #JnJ doses at Aspen? Those which are among the 60 million doses the FDA says can't be used, will have to be destroyed. But #JnJ will have to replace these, because we have already paid for them.

8. How long will it take to replace our doses that can't be used? We don't know. Why not? The FDA hasn't yet decided if Emergent Biosolutions can now continue to produce #JnJ ingredients. For the past 2 months, nothing has been produced at the factory.

9. Emergent Biosolutions isn't the only factory producing #JnJ ingredients. The US's #JnJ jabs are imported from The Netherlands. But a factory that hasn't been producing (and might not be able to) + millions of doses that have to be destroyed, will slow down supply worldwide.

10. SA has several other #JnJ doses (we've ordered 31 million) that still needs to be produced and won't be affected by the FDA's decision. But #JnJ now has 60 million fewer doses of ingredients to make jabs with, and many countries vaccine orders are affected.

11. Because so many countries (Canada, European countries) are affected by the FDA's decision, there will now be increased pressure on #JnJ to produce doses to replace the ones which can't be used. SA may therefore have to wait longer for its doses.

12. What do we do now? We use our #Pfizer doses until some of our #JnJ doses arrive. We wait for Sahpra to tell us if Sinovac (China) or Spudnik (Russia) will work against the Beta variant identified in SA so we can look at potentially procuring those. We try to talk to Moderna.

13. How many #Pfizer doses have we ordered? 21 million (originally) + another batch of 10 million. We've received 2.5 million of those. Next deliveries:
* 14 June: 636 480
* 21 June: 1,274, 130
For the rest, we don't yet have specific delivery dates.

14. What are the implications of waiting longer for our #JnJ doses? For the waiting period, we'll be vaccinating people against #COVID at half the speed we planned to. Our original vaccination goals will therefore not be reached.

Please see my updated thread: The NYT said the FDA said 60 mil doses can't be used, the FDA didn't include it in their statement (sources in our gov have been given the same nrs reported in the NYT):

https://twitter.com/miamalan/status/1403647174089625605