Just as the deployment of the COVID vaccine was advancing in the US, officials stopped using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after blood clots appeared in a small handful of individuals. The break took effect on April 13 after six people experienced the adverse reaction among 6.8 million doses nationwide. In an interview of 18 April with Meet the press, Anthony Fauci, Managing Director, White House Medical Advisor, spoke about the Johnson & Johnson vaccination and specifically issued a warning about a certain medication used to treat blood clots. Fauci said physicians should pay attention because this general treatment for blood clots can do more harm than good in the case of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Read on to find out more, and for a further update on this rare reaction, find out The One Thing That Gets People Who Get Blood Clots After The Vaccine Common.
The six reported cases of blood clots were found in women between the ages of 18 and 48 who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Those with the very rare reaction noticed symptoms between six and 13 days after vaccination.
During an April 18 interview with NBCs Chuck Todd on Meet the press, Fauci warned that the drug heparin, a blood thinner used to prevent blood clots, could aggravate the situation. “The standard way you would think about treating blood clots is with the anticoagulant heparin,” Fauci said. “It would not be signaled in this case, because heparin can actually make it worse.”
And for more information on what can cause blood clots, know that if you use this medication, you are more likely to get a blood clot.
“Do not treat patients with thrombotic events and thrombocytopenia after receiving J&J COVID-19 vaccine with heparin unless HIT testing is negative,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in an emergency statement on April 13. according to Medscape, HIT is testing the investigation of thrombocytopenia by heparin, a clotting condition that results from treatment with the medication.
“If HIT tests are positive or cannot be performed in patients with thrombotic events and thrombocytopenia after receiving J & J COVID-19 vaccine, anticoagulant non-heparin and high dose intravenous immunoglobulin should be strongly considered,” the CDC explains .
Other health officials have issued similar warnings. “Giving heparin actually makes it worse,” Peter Marks, Managing Director, Director of the Center for Biological Evaluation and Research at the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), said during a webinar from the American Medical Association. “One of the individuals who received heparin clearly had complications related to receiving heparin.”
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Fauci said the FDA and CDC have made the decision to suspend the use of the vaccine to obtain all the necessary information and alert doctors who may see patients, specifically women, with this unusual reaction.
But he does not believe the extension of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine break will stretch last Friday when he expects the CDC and FDA to deliver judgment. “We need to have an answer as to where we are going with it. … There will most likely be a decision,” Fauci told ABC. This week on April 18th. “I do not want to present them. But I do not think they are going to cancel completely.”
And for more information on who is at risk of experiencing another rare event with the vaccine, see You are more likely to get COVID after vaccination if you are older than this age.
Although Fauci does not believe that the CDC and FDA will recommend a cancellation of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, he does think that changes are underway. Although he could not say for sure, Fauci suggests that there would be a warning about the vaccine, or that it would be restricted to use among certain people, based on age and perhaps gender.
“I believe we will return with it and there may be some restrictions. Not sure what it will be, whether it is age or sex and whether they will just come back with a warning of some kind,” said Fauci. on Meet the press. “I do think there will probably be a warning or restriction or risk assessment. I don’t think it’s just going to go back and say, ‘OK, everything’s fine, go back.’ I think it would probably say, “OK, we’re going to use it. But be careful under these certain circumstances.” “And for more information on who’s most prone to this problem, look. If you have this blood type, you’ll probably get blood clots.