Local health leaders are concerned that the pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine might cause people to think twice about getting vaccinated at all. 

A local health authority said the guarantee of protection from any of the vaccines outweighs the risk of dying from the virus.

“In our community, we lost 287 individuals up to now in a population of 60,000,” Starr County Health Authority Dr. Antonio Falcon said. “So it's very easy to do the math and say the vaccines are much safer than the danger of illness."

Johnson & Johnson delayed further rollout of the vaccine and clinical trials are also on hold.