The Atlantic The J&J Vaccine Is Not a Tainted Cantaloupe Our regulators are not fools. But they have a peculiar sense of responsibility that leads them to adopt a fraidy-cat level of caution. 10:52 AM ET Artur Widak / NurPhoto / Getty I am one of the nearly 7 million Americans with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine percolating through my tissue at this very moment. It feels good. The sensation of rising immunity to COVID-19 would almost certainly still feel good if I were a woman between the ages of 18 and 48, like all six of the vaccine recipients who later suffered from blood clots. The clots, which might or might not be related to the vaccine, can kill you; one of the six patients died. If you treat the clots the wrong way, the treatment can kill, too—which is why the CDC and FDA paused J&J vaccination yesterday morning, and left the vaccine in my body a limited-edition commodity, like a final gulp of Coke Classic.