“Less than one in a million”, said dr. Anthony Fauci stressed during an information session in the White House on Tuesday.
All six cases were among women between 18 and 48 years old, the agencies said in a statement, and the symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination. The recommendation to break comes from an ‘abundance of caution’, they added, and these cases “appear to be extremely rare.”
“It now makes sense to remain silent, to realize whether this is a real phenomenon, whether it is really related to the vaccine and who in particular may be at greatest risk,” said Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at George Washington University, told CNN on Tuesday.
Reiner added that he was concerned that the break could contribute to further hesitation about the vaccines being administered in the US.
“The way I want people to look at it is this: these vaccines are incredibly effective. You are much more likely to die from the coronavirus than you are to have a significant complication through these vaccines,” he said.
‘Our confidence in these vaccines is still high’
The recommendation to interrupt should show “how seriously we take adverse events and how safety is really a critical priority,” said U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy told CNN on Tuesday night.
There are a few reasons behind the break, Murthy said.
“One of them is to do the research quickly, to understand if there is a link between the vaccine and the side effects. But there is also another reason to stop, it is to take our time give to talk to the medical community … so we can ask their help to look for the kind of symptoms we may be worried about. ‘
And a break is not uncommon, he added. Breaks happen “often,” Murthy said, with either vaccines or new drugs, “to evaluate new developments.”
“Our confidence in these vaccines is still high … We just want to make sure the investigations are done completely,” he said.
The fact that the blood clots were not raised during the Johnson & Johnson vaccine trials amounts to a matter of numbers, ‘Fauci said in an NBC interview on Tuesday.
“Generally, clinical trials involve 30 to 40,000 people,” he said. “You are talking about an adverse event that occurred in six people out of 6.85 million people who were vaccinated with the J&J in the United States.”
“When you get out into the real world, you give it to tens and tens of millions of people, and at that point you see if there is a rare adverse event,” Fauci added.
Break can significantly affect university students
Even with the interruption of the J&J vaccine, the US has enough stock of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to be able to vaccinate its adult population by the end of July, Murthy told CNN.
“I am confident that even with what happens to Johnson and Johnson, we will be able to vaccinate the country and do so effectively,” he said.
In Kentucky, Governor Andy Beshear said that while the break was not good news, it was not crippling for the state’s vaccination efforts.
Leaders in other states, including New York and North Carolina, also said they would be able to keep up with their Pfizer and Moderna stocks. In Ohio, state leaders said Tuesday that the majority of J & J doses received by the state are directed to mass vaccination clinics and colleges and universities, “most of which have already completed their student vaccinations.”
Most vaccination clinics and university clinics that have planned to offer this vaccine this week would rather offer the vaccination against Pfizer or Moderna.
“A total of eight sites will not offer any vaccines this week as the health community works to recognize, report and manage adverse events associated with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine,” Ohio State Office Mike DeWine, said.
Nationwide, the interruption of the J&J vaccine could have a significant impact on university students, who were the main targets for the shot before leaving school at the end of the spring semester.
‘According to an Ohio government official, there is not enough time to give twice before many students leave this summer. “This is a much bigger deal than the White House will recognize.”
An official in another Midwestern state said college campuses were planning vaccination clinics for students in the remaining two weeks of April. The interruption of the J&J vaccines makes the plans very uncertain, the official said, depending on how long the interruption takes place.
Good news from other vaccines
The other two Covid-19 vaccines approved for the US – Pfizer and Moderna – will not be involved in the break, Murthy added on Tuesday.
The US has also bought 300 million doses of Moderna, which the company says is on track to be ready by the end of July.
Moderna also announced that the vaccine has been more than 90% effective for at least six months, citing the preliminary results of the Phase 3 study.
Elizabeth Cohen, Michael Nedelman, Jeff Zeleny, Chris Boyette, Alec Snyder and Lauren Mascaren of CNN contributed to this report.