PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — After a lengthy meeting on Wednesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee decided they need more information before they can recommend the best way to move forward with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The committee met one day after recommending administration of the shots be paused because of a rare blood clotting condition in six recipients.
Investigators have a lot of questions about these blood clots, and they will be looking into commonalities among the recipients — all women — who had the adverse reaction.
During the meeting, officials noted an extended delay of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could have worldwide implications for the vaccine effort. That’s balanced with the question of whether they have enough information to make age- or gender-based risk factor recommendations for use of the vaccine.
They admitted it’s difficult to make a decision with unanswered questions.
A high question on that list: Why is this happening?
What makes these six cases so rare, according to Dr. Tom Shimabukuro with the CDC, is that blood clots have combined with low platelets in these recipients. But, platelets are what make blood clot in the first place.
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“We have clots forming in large vessels in the presence of low platelets, so it’s kind of a paradox here,” he said.
Because it’s so rare, it’s hard to estimate what an expected rate would be. It mirrors concerns from Europe about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is similar to the J&J one. Moderna and Pfizer’s mRNA vaccines have not had similar issues.
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Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s medical adviser, said because the women were all between the ages of 18 and 48, hormone levels will be investigated as possible factors.
"There have been similar types of phenomena that have occurred during pregnancy. Clotting abnormalities are known in women who take birth control pills, so certainly there could be a hormonal aspect to this," he said.
Fauci says it’s not known if the women took birth control. That, too, he said, needs to be reviewed.
He understands that people who got the J&J shots may be worried, but he emphasized that this blood clotting reaction is very rare.
"It depends on when they got (the shot). It appears that this adverse event occurs between six days and 13 days. So if you've had it a month or two ago, I think you really don't need to worry about anything," he said.
"If you are in the timeframe of within a week or two of having gotten vaccinated, remember one thing: This is a very rare event. It's less than one in a million."
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Still, he said, people should be alert to certain symptoms, such as severe headache, difficulty in movement, chest discomfort and difficulty breathing.
Anyone with those symptoms after receiving the J&J vaccine is advised to see a doctor.
Shimabukuro also emphasized this is why it’s so important for health care providers to report to VAERS, the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. They’re asking everyone who gets the vaccine to sign up for V-safe to get personalized check-ins and report how they’re feeling.
He said VAERS clearly works, as the small numbers of such rare cases were quickly brought to widespread attention.
There is also a concern that this incident will fuel vaccine hesitancy among skeptics. But Fauci said the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are very safe, and there are no negative or adverse signals coming out of distribution efforts, which he said is very good news.
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