The launch of the COVID-19 vaccine in recent months has left people with a lot of questions, and the latest concerns about the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine have probably given people even more.
The background: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a joint statement Tuesday morning recommending a temporary shutdown of Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ distribution.
COVID-19 vaccine while examining six severe cases of rare blood clots that have been reported in people who have been shot.
Health officials called for this short-term shutdown out of “plenty of precaution,” they said, noting that these blood clots were “extremely rare” and occurred in less than a million vaccinated people. . Specifically, only six cases of these rare blood clots have been reported among the 6.8 million Americans who received the J&J single-dose vaccine. But the CDC wants to make sure health care providers are prepared to treat blood clots if they occur.
Read more: US recommends discontinuation of J&J COVID-19 vaccine after rare blood clots are reported
So what happened? In these six cases, all women, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was observed in combination with low levels of platelets in the blood (aka thrombocytopenia). One person remains in critical condition and one has died.
Dr. Reynold Panettieri, a lung doctor and professor of medicine at Rutgers University, explained to MarketWatch that a CVST manifests as a stroke. “Blood clots form in the draining veins of the brain, which supports things and causes bleeding in the brain,” he said. They are rare, occur in five to one million people each year and can be caused by certain types of cancer or sickle cells.
“
“You don’t get an anxiety reaction because remember, it’s less than one in a million.”
”
All six cases of CVST and low blood platelet levels among J&J vaccine recipients involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms six to 13 days after vaccination. But health officials have noted that the number of such cases is so low that they cannot yet generalize whether this is something that women of a certain age or other demographic could be at higher risk of developing. That is why the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommends the use of vaccines with the authorization of the Food and Drug Administration, will meet on Wednesday to review cases.
Coronavirus news: US COVID vaccination program faces failure with J&J jab because experts say there is no cause for alarm
AstraZeneca AZN,
The COVID-19 vaccine, which has not yet been licensed in the United States, has been stopped in some European countries due to similar blood clot problems.
This news could wisely understand the alarms of those people who have already received the J&J vaccine, or those who will soon receive the vaccines. But we don’t need to panic; you just need to be careful if you have symptoms such as severe headaches, abdominal pain, leg pain or difficulty breathing. If so, seek medical attention.
“I would tell them not to get an anxiety reaction in the first place, because remember it’s less than a million,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert. during a White House press conference. Tuesday.
So, that’s what we know about these J&J cases so far, what symptoms people should be concerned about and what you should do about any future meetings with the J&J vaccine. Keep in mind that this information may change as we learn more, so these guidelines will be updated as health officials update their recommendations.
I’ve already received my shot with J&J. What should I pay attention to?
The CDC and FDA say that if you suffer from severe headaches, abdominal pain or leg pain, or begin to have difficulty breathing within three weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine, you should seek medical attention or talk to your provider. of medical services.
These blood clot symptoms should not be confused with flu-like symptoms (fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and nausea) or swollen lymph nodes under the arms and near the collarbone, which may be a normal response to any COVID. vaccines from J&J, Pfizer PFE,
or Modern MRNA,
It should be noted that blood clot events usually occurred approximately one week after the J&J vaccine and no more than three weeks after vaccination, with a median of approximately nine days. So, if it’s been almost a month since you got the shot, then you should be free.
I’m scheduled to shoot J&J. Should I cancel my appointment or receive the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead?
There is no need to rush to cancel your appointment, although the state or vaccination site may already cancel or reschedule J&J appointments for the time being, while the recommended break is in effect. Retailers and pharmacies such as Walgreens, Rite Aid RAD,
CVS CVS,
and Wegmans have canceled their J&J appointments for now.
Or some states, including New York and Texas, will move to offering people scheduled to get J&J shot one of the other COVID vaccines available from Pfizer and Moderna, instead. Check your local health department or vaccination site for guidance. And the break “will not have a significant impact” on the White House vaccination plan, according to Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator.
Furthermore, doctors and vaccination sites can still offer you the J&J vaccine. “This is a recommendation and not a mandate. It’s an abundance of precaution, “Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for the Evaluation and Research of Organic Products, told a news conference Tuesday. If an individual health care provider has a conversation with an individual patient, and they have determined that the benefit risk for that individual patient is adequate, we will not stop that provider from administering the vaccine.
Keep in mind that tens of millions of people have already received the J&J vaccine without this severe side effect. “We need to put this in context,” Panettieri said. “It is very important to realize that millions of people have received Johnson & Johnson vaccines and benefited from the benefits of the vaccine. This is an incredibly unusual and rare event. You are more likely to have COVID-19 and have a severe COVID infection [if you don’t get vaccinated] than to get this complication from the vaccine. ”
Who is most at risk of developing this rare blood clot / low platelet reaction in the J&J vaccine?
There are still too few cases to make concrete connections. “The revision of six is difficult to generalize. We will ask our committee of experts to take a close look, “said Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s deputy chief executive, in a press briefing on Tuesday. “The numbers are small enough, small enough that it’s hard to generalize, but big enough that we want to take action with the break.”
Some things that the cases have in common so far: all six involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, who developed clots within six to 13 days of getting the J&J shot. But it is far too early to say that women of a certain age are at greater risk than anyone else.
But again: these blood clots are still extremely rare and it is not at all clear whether the vaccine caused these clots. The use of oral birth control pills and cigarette smoking can also increase the risk of blood clots. “The likelihood that you will have a CVST could come from many, many more factors that people are exposed to than just this vaccine,” Panettieri said. “And remember, this type of thrombosis occurs in five out of a million people anyway. So when you start vaccinating millions and millions of people, you will get some people who would have just developed this anyway. ”
How long will J&J be shot? What’s next?
Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, said the break should last only “a matter of days” during a press briefing on Tuesday morning. It could change depending on “what we learn in the coming days,” she said.
The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. ET to review the cases, and this meeting will be open to the public. Click here for more details on granting; no registration required.
Bottom line: If you have received the J&J vaccine, consider the symptoms of this rare blood clot, including severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, and difficulty breathing within three weeks of getting the shot. But these blood clots are so rare – being recorded in less than a million people who have received their J&J shots – that there is no need to panic or rush to cancel a future meeting with the J&J vaccine. Your vaccination site or local health department may reschedule appointments or replace J&J vaccines with other vaccines, so check with your vaccination site to see how this might affect your future. . meeting.
“The message here is that the most important thing people can do is get vaccinated,” Panettieri said. “If you don’t get vaccinated, it would put you at such a high risk of dying from COVID, or a serious risk of COVID, that I wouldn’t be worried about these isolated and very rare cases of blood clots.”