Feds press "pause" on J&J vaccine
CDC convening experts Thursday to evaluate six reported blood clots among the 6.5 million J&J vaccinations given in the USA. White House says 28 million Pfizer, Moderna doses on their way this week.
Update: Correcting CDC ACIP meeting to Wednesday (April 14) instead of Thursday.
If you got the J&J shot more than a month ago and have no signs of headache or other problems, you probably have no reason for concern. If you got the shot less than a month ago, be alert for possible signs of blood clotting, such as headache. The odds are overwhelmingly against any adverse reaction, and the shots are proving to be highly effective at preventing COVID-19 disease and deaths.
However, the FDA and CDC jointly announced recommendations to halt use of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine so that they and outside experts can delve deeper into reported cases of blood clots in women who got the vaccine. There have been six of these cases, including one death, out of about 6.5 million vaccinations with the J&J product. CDC advisers are meeting Wednesday and are expected to provide new guidance for clinicians and patients about the possibility of these rare blood clots and how to treat them, should they occur. Unlike more common blood clots, these are accompanied by low platelet count, which is one reason why the standard anti-clot treatments are ineffective or dangerous.
White House officials bent over backwards to insist that the decision was made entirely by experts at FDA and CDC, and the White House only helped notify states and make sure that there are adequate supplies of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines to cover at least 3 million vaccinations each day. White House COVID coordinator Jeffrey Zients says 28 million doses of those two vaccines are ready to go to states and that the supply will be sufficient to meet president’s goal of vaccinating all adults by the end of May, even if the J&J vaccine remains unavailable. White House medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci says the pause is likely to be “days or weeks, not weeks or months.”
Last week, North Carolina stopped using the J&J vaccine after 26 people reported adverse reactions after getting the shots, including several who fainted.
The rare blood clots occurred between 6-14 days of vaccination, with headaches in that period a likely indicator, says Fauci.
These adverse reactions are similar to the reports associated with the AstraZeneca vaccine in use outside the USA. Although they are different vaccines, they both are based on the same technology - using a harmless cold virus to deliver instructions to the immune system.
The Washington Post put together a visualization that helps put the risks of the J&J vaccine into perspective.
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