A Tweet from the Official @US_FDA Twitter account reads," Today FDA and @CDCgov issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson #COVID19 vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution."
The recommendation comes after 6 cases of severe and very rare blood clots were reported around two weeks post-vaccination. There have been more than 6.8 million does of the J&J vaccine given in the United States to date. The U.S. CDC and FDA state that the occurrence of these adverse events are extremely rare.
The U.S. FDA reports that, the "CDC will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess their potential significance. FDA will review that analysis as it also investigates these cases." Until then, they are recommending this pause out of an abundance of caution as the unique treatment for this specific type of blood clot differs from that of a common blood clot. This pause will allow time for awareness of this extremely rare adverse event to circulate amongst the health care provider community. The Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine rollout in Europe has been delayed as well.
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