U.S. Seeks to Pause J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Use Amid Blood Clotting Reports -- 2nd Update
13 April 2021 - 10:31PM
Dow Jones News
By Peter Loftus
U.S. health authorities recommended a pause in the use of
Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine in order to investigate
rare but severe cases of blood clots.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention announced the move Tuesday, after
finding that six women between the ages of 18 and 48 years who got
the vaccine had developed blood clots.
A panel of outside experts will meet Wednesday to review the
matter for the CDC, while the FDA will also conduct an
investigation.
The FDA said it was recommending a pause in the use of the
J&J vaccine "out of an abundance of caution."
The halt comes at a dangerous time during the pandemic, as
health authorities race to vaccinate as many people as possible
before variants develop that can evade the shots. Among the biggest
hurdles is overcoming hesitancy to get vaccinated.
The specter of blood clots could add to concerns about the
safety of the shots, though vaccines from Pfizer Inc. and its
partner BioNTech SE and from Moderna Inc. have proven relatively
safe so far.
J&J's vaccine was the third authorized for use in the U.S.
It uses the same technology as a vaccine from AstraZeneca PLC and
the University of Oxford, not yet authorized in the U.S. that has
also been linked to rare cases of blood clots.
In the case of J&J's shot, six women ages 18 to 48 developed
blood clots after taking the J&J vaccine, the FDA and CDC said.
The clots developed 6 to 13 days after vaccination. The women also
had in their blood low counts of platelets, which help with
clotting.
Given the nature of the side effect, doctors shouldn't use the
normal course of clotting treatment, involving a drug called
heparin, the FDA and CDC said. "In this setting, administration of
heparin may be dangerous, and alternative treatments need to be
given," they said.
Write to Peter Loftus at peter.loftus@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 13, 2021 08:16 ET (12:16 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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