Washington, Dec. 17 (BUS) – US health officials said most Americans should be given the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine instead of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which can cause rare but dangerous blood clots.
The strange clotting problem has caused nine confirmed deaths after the J&J vaccines — while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines don’t come with that risk and appear to be more effective, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisers said.
The committee recommended the unusual step of giving preference to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, and late Thursday, the director of the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walinsky, agreed with the committee’s advice.
So far, the United States has treated all three COVID-19 vaccines available to Americans as an equal option, with large studies finding that they all offer strong protection and early supplies being limited, the AP reports.
The J&J vaccine was initially hailed as a single-dose option that could be especially important for hard-to-reach groups such as the homeless who might not get the needed second dose from the Pfizer or Moderna options.
But CDC advisers said during Thursday’s meeting that it was time to acknowledge that a lot had changed since vaccines were launched a year ago. More than 200 million Americans are considered fully vaccinated, including about 16 million who have received the J&J injection.
New data from unprecedented safety tracking of all of those vaccines convinced the committee that while blood clots associated with the J&J vaccine are still very rare, they still occur and not only in younger women as originally thought.
In a unanimous vote, advisors decided in preference to the safer Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. But they said the shot made by J&J’s Janssen division should be available if someone really wants it — or is overly allergic to other options.
“I wouldn’t recommend the Janssen vaccine for my family,” said CDC advisor Dr. Beth Bell of the University of Washington, but some patients may – and should be able to – opt for that shot.
Clotting problems first surfaced last spring, with the J&J injection in the United States and a similar AstraZeneca vaccine being used in other countries. Ultimately, US regulators decided that the benefits of a one-time-administered J&J vaccine outweighed what was considered a very rare risk — as long as recipients were warned.
European regulators also continued to recommend the two-dose AstraZeneca vaccine, although early reports were mostly in younger women, and some countries have issued age restrictions.
COVID-19 also causes fatal blood clots. But the type associated with the vaccine is different, and is believed to be formed due to a rogue immune reaction to the J&J and AstraZeneca vaccines due to the way they are made.
It forms in unusual places, such as the veins draining blood from the brain, and in patients it also develops abnormally low levels of platelets that form clots. Unusual thrombotic symptoms, called thrombocytopenia with thrombocytopenia syndrome, include a severe headache a week or two after receiving the J&J vaccine — not immediately — as well as abdominal pain and nausea.
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