The Facts on the Recommended J&J Vaccine ‘Pause’
So far, nearly 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered in the U.S., including 7.2 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In six cases there have been reports of “a rare and severe type of blood clot” in those who received the J&J vaccine, prompting the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to recommend “a pause in the use” of the J&J vaccine “out of an abundance of caution.”
All six cases involved women ages 18 to 48 and their symptoms — which included severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath — occurred six to 13 days after they received the J&J vaccine, the agencies said in a joint statement. One died and one remains in critical condition, Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in an April 13 press conference.
The recommended pause only involves the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which uses a different type of vaccine technology than the other two vaccines that have been authorized in the United States and administered in much greater numbers.
“There have been no red flag signals” from the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in a separate April 13 press conference at the White House.
The six women suffered from a combination of a type of blood clot called , or CVST, and low levels of blood platelets, a.
