- U.S. agencies may need two weeks or more to know if Johnson & Johnson’s shot is causing rare blood clots.
- The CDC is shuffling to collect more data, two senior White House officials said.
- But medical experts are concerned that vaccine hesitation could increase if uptake is interrupted for much longer.
- See more stories on Insider’s business page.
U.S. federal agencies may need two weeks or more to know if Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine has been linked to rare blood clots, two senior White House health officials told Politico on Saturday.
U.S. regulators last Tuesday recommended a halt in the distribution of J & J’s shot due to six reports of blood clots among women who recently received the vaccine.
The blood clot in question, central venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), forms in the brain – this can lead to headaches or stroke. In an average year, the condition occurs in about five people out of every million.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination advisory panel is scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss whether the vaccine break should be lifted. But two health officials told Politico that the CDC might not yet have enough data to determine if J & J’s vaccine did indeed cause rare blood clots.
U.S. regulators may eventually consider placing age or gender restrictions on the lap, which are allowed for people 18 and older. Alternatively, in unusual cases, regulators may simply issue stronger warnings about possible blood clots.
Many political leaders and medical experts are concerned that if regulators take too long to evaluate the potential blood clot compound, an increasing proportion of Americans will lose confidence in J & J’s vaccine.
“The longer the break, the longer it will take for us to convince people that this particular vaccine is safe again,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson told Politico.
Peter Gulick, associate professor of medicine at Michigan State University, said the J&J break could delay the prospect of herd immunity – the threshold within which the virus could not easily be passed from person to person.
“The fear is that the anti-vaxxers and even those on the fence, hearing all this stuff, fall off the fence into the arena of ‘I do not think I want to get any vaccine until things are a little more familiar,’ “We may have taken two steps backwards as far as we want to get herd immunity,” Gulick told Insider.
Looking for blood clots in a ‘muddy water’ of data
Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccination is delivered as a single shot, while both Pfizer’s and Moderna’s require two shots.
Thiago Prudêncio / SOPA Images / LightRocket via Getty Images
The CDC’s advisory panel has met once to review the rare cases of blood clots. At a meeting last Wednesday, the panel recommended continuing the suspension of J & J’s vaccine until more data could be collected.
“This is important from the perspective of the public: what does it mean when we barely say?” Dr. Beth Bell, a professor of global health at the University of Washington, said during the meeting. “I want to feel comfortable that my family and I are getting this vaccine.”
U.S. regulators are now urging doctors to report any CVST cases after vaccination during the last few weeks. Regulators are also working with Johnson & Johnson to find out more about the six reported cases – in particular whether the women had underlying health problems or used any medication that could cause them to clot.
So far, regulators have noticed a few patterns: the women were between the ages of 18 and 48. They also had a rare combination of CVST and low platelet levels – colorless blood cells that can help form blood clots.
Before the vaccines were approved, this combination was seen mainly in association with the blood thinner heparin. In rare cases, people who use the medication develop antibodies that bind to a specific platelet, making them more susceptible to blood clots.
“This observation of low platelet counts is part of the mystery and something that needs to be worked through to see if it is related or not,” Namandjé Bumpus, director of the Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences at Johns Hopkins Medicine, told Insider .
But medical experts stressed that more information was needed before the blood clots were linked to a specific group.
“Everything is just like a big mud water and then you just try to clear things out as much as possible to try to evaluate what’s going on,” Gulick said.
Vaccinations can be delayed for homeless people, prisoners or rural Americans
Yvonne Gibbs, 72, receives Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine at the TCF Center in Detroit.
AP Photo / Carlos Osorio, file
Shortly after U.S. regulators announced a break in the J&J vaccine, White House coordinator Jeff Zients COVID-19 said the recommendation would not affect the pace of U.S. vaccine deployment.
“We have more than enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to continue the current rate of about 3 million shots per day,” Zients told a news conference Tuesday.
Indeed, many health departments, pharmacies, and vaccination clinics that planned to administer Johnson & Johnson were able to quickly get other shots so that people did not lose their appointments.
But some vaccination sites – especially those in rural areas – have been forced to close temporarily. A state-run mass vaccination site in Aurora, Illinois, was canceled earlier this week, ending 1,000-person appointments. About the same time, a Johnson & Johnson clinic in Jefferson County, Illinois, suspended vaccinations.
The J&J break also slowed the rate of vaccinations for the homeless, prisoners and those who could not leave their homes due to illness or old age. J & J’s vaccine is the only single dose allowed in the USA, so it’s the easiest to administer. It is also easier to quit than the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines (these can be stored in regular refrigerators rather than freezers).
In addition, people may be attracted to J & J’s vaccination if they are afraid of needles or have difficulty taking time to be vaccinated.
“We actually see some people opting for the inclusion of Johnson and Johnson just because of their circumstances – it’s one dose, it’s available, and so on,” said Johan Bester, director of bioethics at the University of Nevada, the Las Vegas School of Medicine, Insider said.
Without the J&J option, medical experts said, U.S. health officials could find it harder to persuade more Americans to be vaccinated – even as new, more contagious variants spread across the country.