More Americans are likely to refuse to receive the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine after U.S. health regulators said six women developed a rare blood clotting disorder that left one person dead. and another in critical condition, public health and vaccine experts told CNBC on Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration called on states to temporarily suspend the use of J & J’s unique vaccine on Tuesday, “with great caution” after six women, ages 18 to 48, of about 6.9 million people who received the vaccine developed blood. clotting disorder known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis or CVST.
All the women developed the disease, which occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous sinuses of the brain, preventing blood from leaving the brain to the heart, two weeks after receiving the shot, they reported. health officers to journalists. .
“For people who recently received the vaccine in the last two weeks, they should be aware of looking for any symptoms,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, senior deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a press conference. Tuesday. “If you have been vaccinated and have developed severe headaches, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath, you should contact your doctor and seek medical treatment.”
Shortly after the FDA issued the warning, more than a dozen states and some pharmacies took steps to stop inoculations with the J&J vaccine, some replacing scheduled appointments with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Some doctors say they are already making calls from worried patients.
People were already skeptical about vaccines before the coronavirus appeared as a new pathogen in China in December 2019, infecting more than 31.2 million Americans and killing at least 562,718 in just over a year. U.S. health officials’ warnings to states are likely to fuel even more hesitation in firing J&J and other vaccines, threatening to slow the nation’s recovery from the pandemic, experts said. health on CNBC.
“Unfortunately, it will likely aggravate those who have some degree of hesitation when it comes to receiving a vaccine,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who has been involved in several drug data safety and security control boards. . “Senior public health officials need to remain open, honest, transparent and, above all, contextualize that this is a low risk.”
The goal, according to President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the American population, or approximately 232 to 281 million people, to achieve immunity. of the herd and suppress the pandemic.
To date, more than 120 million Americans, or 36% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to data compiled by the CDC. According to the CDC, approximately 74 million Americans, or 22% of the total U.S. population, are fully vaccinated. In the United States, children under the age of 16 are not yet allowed to shoot and some adults are likely to refuse to get vaccinated.
“This throws a key into the plans. It will slow down deployment,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute for Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “People will say, ‘I don’t want this one, I want one of the others who doesn’t have this problem,’ even if it’s an extraordinarily rare event.”
Some Americans, especially in black, Hispanic, and rural communities, were already hesitant to get the J&J vaccine in particular because they perceived it to be inferior to that of Pfizer and Moderna. The highly effective J&J shot, especially against serious diseases, proved 72% effective in the U.S. in protecting against Covid about a month after inoculation. This compares with the efficacy of approximately 95% of the two-dose vaccines of Pfizer and Moderna.
Single-dose vaccines, such as J&J, were crucial to “reaching communities where a dose regimen was neither practical nor really possible,” Kahn said. U.S. health officials made extensive use of the J&J vaccine to reach poorer urban and rural areas where residents could not easily reach a vaccine clinic or did not have reliable Internet access.
“These communities are also the most affected by Covid,” Kahn said. “Paused use of J&J [is] once to do it effectively and quickly “.
Dr. Stephen Schrantz, who was part of the team that led a trial of the J&J vaccine at the Medical University of Chicago, said he already had patients who did not want the J&J vaccine and said the news will give them more tests to say, “Look, I told you.”
“I suspect the deployment and uptake of the vaccine will slow down, there will be a migration out of the J&J vaccine, even if the CDC and the FDA conclude that there is no causal relationship,” he said. “And as the mask deteriorates, we may start to see more cases, like the ones we have in Michigan, appearing elsewhere.”
Dr. Scott Gottlieb, who is part of Pfizer’s board, predicted that the measure would “feed the hesitation” of some people to get a vaccine against Covid.
“Even if there isn’t a causal relationship, even if it’s extremely rare, I think we’ll now see the whole conversation ignite on social media,” he told CNBC in an interview.
Dr. Purvi Parikh, a specialist in allergies and immunology to infectious diseases at NYU Langone Health, on Tuesday called the FDA’s warning a “double-edged sword,” saying it will likely add concern to Americans. who already doubt. He also said he has already received “panic calls” from his own patients about the J&J vaccine.
“But just in case, I want to reiterate: this only gives me more faith in our system because these security checks and balances are working. So I hope this gives some people peace of mind,” he added. “Squawk on the Street.” “” Again, just to see the big picture, the benefits far outweigh the risks of this vaccination. “
Dr. Archana Chatterjee, a specialist in pediatric infectious diseases and a member of the FDA Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, echoed Parikh’s observation. He added that there was nothing “unusual” in the way U.S. health regulators approached the issue.
“This is a normal procedure that occurs,” he said.
“But obviously, every time serious adverse events are reported about any vaccine that raises concern in the minds of the public,” he added. “When you talk about confidence in the vaccine or hesitation, could that have an impact? It’s definitely possible.”
Dr. Paul Offit, another member of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, said he expects Americans to think about the issue “rationally,” adding that cases of blood clots appear to be extremely rare. He noted that persuading people from hard-to-reach communities could be a challenge.
“It should be reassuring for people that officials continue to watch [at the vaccine], even for rare side effects, “he said.
– Kevin Stankiewicz of CNBC contributed to this article.