The COVID-19 vaccine vaccination over the past few months has left people with many questions, and the latest concerns about Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose vaccine have probably given people even more.
The background: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a joint statement Tuesday morning recommending a temporary halt to the distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s JNJ.
COVID-19 vaccine while investigating six serious cases of rare blood clots reported in people who received the shot.
Health officials called this short-term strike out of “an abundance of caution,” they said, emphasizing that these blood clots were “extremely rare” and that they occurred in less than one in every million people vaccinated. Specifically, there have been only six cases of these rare blood clots reported among the 6.8 million Americans who received the J&J vaccine. But the CDC wants to ensure that healthcare providers are willing to treat blood clots if they occur.
Read more: US recommends stopping use of J & J’s COVID-19 vaccine after reports of rare blood clots
So what happened? In these six cases, all women were seen, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) in combination with low platelet counts (also known as thrombocytopenia). One person remains in critical condition, and one is dead.
Dr. Reynold Panettieri, a pulmonologist and a professor of medicine at Rutgers University, explained to MarketWatch that a CVST manifests as a stroke. “Blood clots form in the draining veins of the brain, and it backs things up and causes bleeding in the brain,” he said. It is rare, occurring annually in five out of every million people and can be caused by certain cancers or sickle cell.
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“Do not get anxiety reaction, because remember, it is less than one in a million.”
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All six cases of CVST and low platelet levels among the J&J vaccine recipients involved women between the ages of 18 and 48, with symptoms occurring six to 13 days after vaccination. But health officials have noted that the number of cases is so small that they can not yet generalize whether it is something that women of a certain age or other demographic groups are at higher risk of developing. That’s why the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which recommends the use of vaccines after the Food and Drug Administration’s approval, met on Wednesday to review the matter.
Coronavirus update: The US COVID vaccination program is facing a setback with J&J jab, because according to experts there is no reason to worry
The AstraZeneca AZN,
COVID-19 vaccine, which has not yet been approved in the US, has been discontinued in some European countries due to similar concerns about blood clots.
This news may be understandable to people who have already received their J&J vaccine, or to those who are about to take their shots. But there need not be panic; just note if you have symptoms such as severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath. If you do, seek medical help.
“I would tell them not to get an anxiety reaction just because they remember, it’s less than one in a million,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s leading expert on infectious diseases, said during a press conference in the White House. on Tuesday.
So this is what we know so far about these J&J cases, what symptoms people should watch out for and what you should do about the upcoming J&J vaccine appointments. Keep in mind that this information is subject to change as we learn more, so these guidelines will be updated as health officials update their recommendations.
I received all my J&J recordings. What should I watch out for?
The CDC and FDA say that if you have severe headaches, experience abdominal pain or pain in the leg, or begin to experience breathing within three weeks of your J&J vaccine, you should seek medical help or talk to your healthcare provider.
These blood clot symptoms should not be confused with flu-like symptoms (fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and nausea) or swollen lymph nodes under your arms and near your collarbone, which may be a normal reaction to get any of the COVID vaccines from J&J , Pfizer PFE,
of Modern MRNA,
It should be noted that the blood clotting events usually occurred about a week after the J&J vaccine, and no longer than three weeks after vaccination, with a median of about nine days. So if it’s been almost a month since you got a chance, then you need to make it clear.
I’m planning to get my J&J shot. Should I cancel my appointment or get the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead?
You do not have to cancel your appointment, although your state or vaccination site may now cancel or reschedule all the J&J appointments while the recommended break is in effect. Retailers and drugstores such as Walgreens, Rite Aid RAD,
CVS CVS,
and Wegmans, for example, have tentatively canceled their J&J appointments.
Or some states, including New york en Texas, will switch to those planning to get the J&J shot, get one of the other available COVID vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. Consult your local health department or your vaccination site for guidance. According to Jeff Zients, the White House’s COVID-19 Response Coordinator, the break will have no significant impact on the White House’s vaccination plan.
What’s more, doctors and vaccination sites can still give you the J&J vaccine. “It’s a recommendation and it’s not a mandate. It is out of abundance of caution, ”said dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s center for biological evaluation and research, said at a press conference on Tuesday. “If an individual healthcare provider conducts a conversation with an individual patient and they determine that the benefit risk is appropriate for that patient, we will not stop the provider from administering the vaccine.”
Keep in mind that tens of millions of people have already received the J&J vaccine without this serious side effect. “We need to put it in context,” Panettieri said. ‘It’s very important to realize that millions of people have received Johnson & Johnson vaccines and reaped the benefits of the vaccine. This is an incredibly unusual and rare event. You are more likely to get COVID-19 and have a serious COVID infection [if you don’t get vaccinated] than to get this complication of the vaccine. ”
Who is most at risk of developing this rare blood clot / platelet reaction of the J&J vaccine?
There are still too few cases to make concrete connections. ‘It’s difficult to revise generalizations by six. We will carefully examine our expert committee, ‘said dr. Anne Schuchat, chief deputy director of the CDC, said during a press conference on Tuesday. “The numbers are pretty small, small enough that it’s hard to generalize, but big enough that we wanted to take action with the break.”
Some things that the cases have so far had in common: All six women involved between the ages of 18 and 48, who got the blood clot within six to 13 days after receiving the J&J shot. But it is far too soon to say that women of a certain age are at a higher risk than anyone else.
But again: these blood clots are still extremely rare, and it is not at all clear whether the vaccine caused these blood clots. Using oral contraceptive pills and smoking cigarettes can also increase the risk of blood clots. “The likelihood of having a CVST can be prevented by many, many more factors that people are exposed to than just this vaccine,” Panettieri said. ‘And remember, this type of thrombosis occurs in at least five out of a million people. So if you start vaccinating millions and millions of people, you will find people who would just develop it anyway. ”
How long will the J&J shot be on pause? What happens next?
Dr Janet Woodcock, the acting commissioner of the FDA, said that this break would only last a few days on Tuesday morning. “It could change depending on ‘what we learn the next few days’, she noted.
The CDC’s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee will hold an emergency meeting on Wednesday from 13:30 to 16:30 ET to review matters, and this meeting is available for public viewing. Click here for more details on consent; no registration is required.
The conclusion: If you have received the J&J vaccine, you should monitor the symptoms of this rare blood clot, including severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, and shortness of breath within three weeks of being shot. But these blood clots are so rare – they are recorded in less than one in a million people who have received their J&J shots – that it is not necessary to panic or to cancel an upcoming J&J vaccine appointment . Your vaccination center or local health department can recreate appointments or exchange J&J vaccines for other vaccines, but consult your vaccination center to see how this may affect your future appointment.
“The takeaway message here is that the most important thing people can do is get vaccinated,” Panettieri said. “If you are not vaccinated, you could be at such an increased risk of COVID death, or a serious risk of COVID, that I would not worry about these isolated and very rare cases of blood clots.”