More Americans are likely to refuse to get the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine after U.S. health regulators said six women developed a rare blood clotting disorder that left one and the other in a critical condition, public health experts said. and vaccines told CNBC Tuesday.
The Food and Drug Administration called on states early Tuesday to suspend the use of J & J’s single-shot vaccine “out of caution” after six women, aged between 18 and 48, out of the approximately 6.9 million people who received the shot, a blood clotting disorder known as cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, or CVST.
All the women developed the condition, which occurs when a blood clot forms in the venous sinuses of the brain, preventing blood from draining from the brain back to the heart, within two weeks of receiving the shot, health officials said. said a call to reporters. .
“For people who have recently received the vaccine in the past few weeks, they should be aware of looking for symptoms,” said Dr. Anne Schuchat, the chief deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said during a press conference on Tuesday. “If you have been vaccinated and have developed severe headaches, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath, you should contact your healthcare provider and seek medical treatment.”
Shortly after the FDA issued the warning, more than a dozen states as well as some pharmacies took steps to stop vaccinations with J & J’s vaccine, some replacing scheduled appointments with the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine. Some doctors believe they are already calling from concerned patients.
People were already skeptical about vaccines before the coronavirus emerged in December 2019 as a new pathogen in China, infecting more than 31.2 million Americans and killing at least 562,718 in just over a year. The health experts told CNBC that the warning from US health officials to states would probably be even more reluctant to take J & J’s lap and the other vaccines, which threaten to halt the country’s recovery from the pandemic.
“Unfortunately, it is likely to aggravate those who have some reluctance to receive a vaccine,” said Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist who sits on several medicine and safety monitoring boards. “Senior public health officials must continue to be candid, honest, transparent and, most importantly, contextualize that it is low risk.”
According to Anthony Buci, the chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden, the goal is to vaccinate between 70% and 85% of the U.S. population – or about 232 million to 281 million people – to bring about herd immunity and end the pandemic. suppress.
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 information compiled by the CDC. About 74 million Americans, or 22% of the total U.S. population, have been completely vaccinated, according to the CDC. Children under the age of 16 are not yet authorized in the US to take the shots, and some adults are likely to refuse to get any vaccine.
“It throws a wrench into the plans. It will delay implementation,” said Dr. Jeffrey Kahn, director of the Berman Institute for Bioethics at Johns Hopkins University. “People will say, ‘I do not want one, I want one of the others who does not have the problem,’ even if it is an extraordinarily rare event.”
Some Americans, especially in black, Hispanic, and rural communities, have been reluctant to get the J&J vaccine in particular because they consider it inferior to Pfizer and Moderna. The J&J shot, which is very effective, especially against serious diseases, showed 72% effectiveness in the US in protecting against Covid by about a month after vaccination. This compares with the approximately 95% efficacy of Pfizer and Moderna dual dose vaccines.
Single-dose vaccines such as J & J’s were crucial to “getting to communities where a two-dose regimen was not practical or really possible,” Kahn said. U.S. health officials have largely used J & J’s vaccine to reach poorer urban and rural areas where residents could not easily access a vaccine clinic or did not have reliable internet access.
“The communities are also the ones that are worst affected by Covid,” Kahn said. “Interrupt the use of J&J [is] a time to do it effectively and quickly. ‘
Dr. Stephen Schrantz, who was part of the team that led a J&J vaccine trial at the University of Chicago Medicine, said he already had patients who did not want the J&J vaccine and said that the news will give them further evidence to say, “See, I told you so.”
“I suspect vaccines will be delayed and taken up, and there will be a migration of the J&J vaccine, even if the CDC and FDA conclude that there is no causal link,” he said. “And as the mask wears, we can see more cases like in Michigan show up elsewhere.”
Dr Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer’s board, predicted the move would fuel some people’s reluctance to get a Covid vaccine.
“Even if there is no causal link, even if it is extremely rare, I think we are going to see the whole conversation ignited on social media now,” he said in an interview with CNBC.
Dr Purvi Parikh, a specialist in infectious disease allergy and immunology at NYU Langone Health, called the FDA on Tuesday a “double-edged sword” and said it would likely raise concerns among Americans who are already hesitant. She also said she had already received ‘panicked calls’ from her own patients about the J&J vaccine.
“But if I want to, I want to repeat again: it just gives me more confidence in our system because the security checks and balances work. So hopefully it gives some people peace of mind,” she added in “Squawk on the Street.” “” Again, just looking at the big picture, the benefits still outweigh the risks of this vaccination. “
Dr Archana Chatterjee, a pediatric infectious disease specialist and member of the FDA’s advisory committee on vaccines and related biological products, reiterated Parikh’s remark. She added that there was nothing “unusual” in the way U.S. health regulators are addressing the issue.
“This is a normal procedure that takes place,” she said.
“But it is clear that when serious adverse events are reported about any vaccine that raises public concern,” she added. “If you’re talking about vaccine confidence or hesitation about vaccines, could it have an impact? It’s definitely possible.”
Dr. Paul Offit, another member of the advisory committee on vaccines and related biological products, said he hopes Americans should think ‘rationally’, adding that cases of blood clots seem extremely rare. He noted that people in hard-to-reach communities can be a challenge to persuade.
‘It should reassure people that officials continue to watch [at the vaccine], even for rare side effects, ‘he said.
– CNBC’s Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this article.