President Joe Biden’s plan to free the nation from the most onerous COVID-19 restrictions by Independence Day through mass vaccinations has been hit by the “pause” in the use of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine following reports of some people developing blood clots after being injected with it.

The federal government agencies, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centres for Disease Control (CDC), on Tuesday recommended stopping injecting the vaccine after six women who received it came down with a very rare type of brain blood clot.