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Officials briefed on the decision said federal health authorities called for an urgent halt in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six people in the United States experienced an unusual blood clot disease within two weeks of vaccination.
Women between the ages of 18 and 48 were among the recipients. According to authorities, one woman died and another is in critical condition in a Nebraska hospital.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, almost seven million people in the United States have received Johnson & Johnson injections, with nearly nine million more doses on the way.
The federal government would halt vaccine administration at all federally administered vaccination sites, despite the fact that the decision was presented as a suggestion to state health practitioners. Officials at the federal level anticipate that state health officials will follow suit.
Scientists from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will collaborate to look at potential connections between the vaccine and the condition and decide if the FDA can continue to approve the vaccine for all adults or restrict it. Officials also called an emergency meeting of the CDC’s outside advisory committee for Wednesday.
The change could exacerbate vaccination campaigns around the country at a time when several states are dealing with an influx of new cases and attempting to resolve vaccine hesitancy. Another coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University researchers is causing concern among regulators in Europe and elsewhere. Despite the fact that the AstraZeneca version is not licensed for use in the United States, this issue has fueled some opposition to all vaccines.
Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which together produce more than 23 million doses of their two-shot vaccines each week, provide the majority of the country’s vaccine supply. Neither of those vaccines has been linked to any serious side effects.
Despite the fact that shipments of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been significantly reduced, the Biden administration had planned to use hundreds of thousands of doses per week. The vaccine is therefore simpler to ship and store than the other two, which must be held at extremely low temperatures.
Norwegian authorities said they would announce their response to the J&J vaccine at the same time as they determine whether or not to extend the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday.
The Norwegian Medicines Agency’s medical officer, Steinar Madsen, told state broadcaster NRK about the US move. “It is a dramatic measure, but there are cases that look like what we have seen in Europe with AstraZeneca and it is obvious that this needs to be looked at more closely. In light of what happened with AstraZeneca, it is very important that this work has the highest priority,” he said.
The symptoms discovered in the six women — cerebral venous sinus thrombosis with low blood platelet levels — may need different treatment than normal blood clots, according to the CDC and FDA, and anticoagulant medications “may be dangerous”.
