The rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine over the past few months has left people with many questions and the latest concerns about Johnson & Johnson’s 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 serious cases of rare blood clots that have been reported in people who have received the shot.
Health officials called for this short-term shutdown as a “very precaution,” they said, stressing that these blood clots were “extremely rare” and that they have only happened in less than one in a million vaccinated people. Specifically, only six cases of these rare blood clots have been reported among the 6.8 million Americans who have 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 pausing use of J&J COVID-19 vaccine following reports of rare blood clots
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 blood platelet levels (also known as thrombocytopenia). One person remains in critical condition and one died.
Dr. Reynold Panettieri, a lung doctor and professor of medicine at Rutgers University, told MarketWatch that a CVST manifests as a stroke. “Blood clots form in the draining veins of the brain, which endorses things and causes bleeding in the brain,” he said. They are rare, occur in five out of a million people each year, and can be caused by certain cancers or sickle cell diseases.
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“Don’t have any anxiety reactions because remember, it’s less than one in a million.”
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The six reported cases of CVST and low platelet levels in the blood among J&J vaccine recipients involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms occurring six to 13 days after vaccination. But health officials noted that the number of such cases is so small that they cannot generalize yet if this is something that women of a certain age or other demographic groups could be at greater risk of developing. That’s why the CDC’s immunization practices advisory committee, which recommends the use of vaccines after authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, will meet Wednesday to review cases.
News about coronavirus: The U.S. COVID vaccination program faces a setback with the J&J jab, as experts say there is no cause for alarm
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The COVID-19 vaccine, which has not yet been authorized in the United States, has been stopped in some European countries due to similar rare clot problems.
However, it is understandable that this news may alarm those people who have already received the J&J vaccine, or those who should be shot soon. But don’t panic; just look for symptoms such as severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or difficulty breathing. If you do, seek medical attention.
“I would tell them not to get an anxiety reaction in the first place because you remember it’s less than one in a million,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said during a press conference of the White House on Tuesday.
So this is what we know so far about these J&J cases, what symptoms people should be aware of, and what you should do in the face of upcoming J&J vaccine appointments. Please note that this information may change as we learn more, so these guidelines will be updated as health officials update their recommendations.
I have already received my shot from J&J. What should I keep in mind?
The CDC and the FDA state 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, to seek medical attention or talk to your healthcare provider.
These symptoms of blood clots 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 obtaining any of the COVID. J&J vaccines, Pfizer PFE,
the 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 an average of about nine days. So if it’s been almost a month since he got the shot, it should be clear.
I’m scheduled to get my shot at J&J. Do I have to cancel my appointment or get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine?
You do not need to rush to cancel your appointment, although your status or place of vaccination may already be canceling or rescheduling J&J appointments for now while the recommended break is in effect. Retail and pharmacies like Walgreens, Rite Aid RAD,
CVS CVS,
and Wegmans have canceled their J&J appointments for now, for example.
Or some states, included New Yorkki Texas, will change to give those people scheduled to get the J&J one of the other COVID vaccines available from Pfizer and Moderna. Check with your local health department or vaccination site for guidance. And the pause “will not have a significant impact” on the White House vaccination plan, according to Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 response coordinator.
In addition, doctors and vaccination sites can still give you the J&J vaccine. “This is a recommendation and not a mandate. He’s out of a lot of caution, “Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Assessment and Research, said at a news conference Tuesday.” If an individual health care provider is having a conversation with an individual patient and has determined that the benefit risk for this patient is adequate, we will not prevent this provider from administering the vaccine. ”
Keep in mind that tens of millions of people have already received the J&J vaccine without this serious side effect. “We have to put that in context,” Panettieri said. “It is very important to realize that millions of people have gotten vaccines against Johnson & Johnson and have gotten the benefits of the vaccine. This is an incredibly strange and rare event. You are more likely to have COVID-19 and have a severe COVID infection [if you don’t get vaccinated] to get this complication from the vaccine “.
Who is most at risk for developing this rare blood clot / low platelet reaction in the J&J vaccine?
There are still too few cases to make concrete connections. “It is difficult to make generalizations to review six. We will have our expert committee take a careful look, “said Dr. Anne Schuchat, CDC’s deputy director general, during a news conference Tuesday.” The numbers are small enough, small enough to be difficult to generalize, but big enough that we wanted to take action with the break. ”
Some aspects that the cases have in common so far, however, are the six: women between the ages of 18 and 48 who developed the clots within six to 13 days after receiving the J&J shot. But it is too early to say that women of a certain age are at higher risk than anyone.
But again: these blood clots are still extremely rare and it is not at all clear if 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 of you having a CVST can 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 every million people anyway. So when you start vaccinating millions and millions of people, you will get some people who would have just developed it anyway. ”
How long will the J&J shot pause? What happens next?
Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA’s acting commissioner, said the break should only last “a matter of days” during a news session Tuesday morning. That could change depending on “what we learn in the next few days,” he noted.
The CDC Advisory Committee on CDC Immunization Practices will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday from 1:30 to 4:30 p.m. ET to review cases, and that meeting will be open to the public. Click here for more information on tuning; no need to register.
The summary: If you have received the J&J vaccine, pay attention to the symptoms of this rare blood clot, such as severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, and shortness of breath within three weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine. dam. But these blood clots are so uncommon (they are recorded in less than a million people who have been shot by J&J) that you don’t have to panic or rush to cancel the next appointment with the J&J vaccine. Your vaccination site or local health department may be rescheduling appointments or replacing J&J vaccines with other vaccines, so check the vaccination site to see how this might affect your future appointment.
“The message to take away here is that the single most important thing people can do is get vaccinated,” Panettieri said. “Not getting vaccinated would pose such a high risk of death from COVID or a serious risk of COVID, that I would not worry about these isolated and very rare cases of blood clots.”