Dr Fauci warns women who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in last 13 days to 'be alert to symptoms' as scientists investigate whether birth control pills played part in blood clots
Dr Anthony Fauci has warned women who have had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to be alert for symptoms of an adverse reaction, as U.S. health agencies advise against the vaccine's usage until more research can be done.
On Tuesday the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended a halt in the use of J&J's jab.
Their recommendation was made after six people, out of the 6.8 million to receive the jab so far, reported blood clots. All were women aged 18-48.
J&J announced that they were also delaying the rollout of their vaccine in Europe, and pausing clinical trials.
Fauci appeared on CBS News on Tuesday night and said that people who had received the J&J jab in the last 13 days should be alert to warning signs.
Anthony Fauci, Joe Biden's top medical advisor, discussed the J&J vaccine on Tuesday night
Fauci said that women who have had the J&J jab in the last 13 days should be alert for signs
A woman receives a dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in Chicago on April 6
'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 time frame 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.
'Having said that, you still wanna be alert to some symptoms, such as severe headache, some difficulty in movement, or some chest discomfort and difficulty breathing.'
Asked by Norah O'Donnell whether women should be particularly aware, he said yes, adding that they were now investigating whether the reaction was hormonal.
'There have been similar types of phenomena that have occurred during pregnancy,' he explained.
'Clotting abnormalities are known in women who take birth control pills, so certainly there could be a hormonal aspect to this.'
Scientists will be looking at whether birth control pills could have played a part in causing blood clots in the women who received the J&J vaccine, and fell ill.
One patient, a 45-year-old woman in Virginia, died following her J&J vaccination in March.
The CDC is investigating the woman's death, Virginian health authorities announced on Tuesday.
The CDC's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) system notes the woman who died began having headaches six days following vaccination, then was hospitalized once the headache worsened and she had started dry heaving.
A head CT scan showed hemorrhaging expanding up to 1.6 centimeters and eventually, cortical vein thrombosis, as listed in the six other cases.
She died on March 18, Richmond.com reported - 12 days after receiving a dose administered by a school.
VAERS does not list any known allergies or underlying medical conditions other than depression.
A woman in Virginia has died after receiving in March the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved in the United States on March 1
The patients were all women aged 18-48, who suffered a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) six to 13 days after receiving the jab.
It is still too early to tell whether or not the vaccine even caused the blood clots and it is a one in a million side effect.
Five times as many people have died from COVID-19 in the U.S. as they do from blood clots ever year.
The agencies, however, say they want to do more tests and studies and that it could take days for them decide on whether or not to resume it.
They may impose a restriction on the vaccine based on the demographic of people who have developed blood clots - all of them are women under 50.
These are the vaccines being used around the world to treat COVID-19. Not all of them have been approved in every country. J&J and AstraZeneca have been linked to blood clotting
President Biden said in the Oval Office on Tuesday that the U.S. had enough vaccine available
The White House on Tuesday tried to smooth over the sudden halt of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, claiming it would not affect their goals to vaccinate the U.S. - despite health experts saying it clearly sets back the country's rollout.
President Joe Biden said in the Oval Office on Tuesday: 'I made sure we have 600 million doses of the mRNA - not of either Johnson & Johnson or AstraZeneca.
'So, there is enough vaccine that is basically 100 per cent unquestionable for every single solitary American,' he said.
Now, everyone who had a J&J appointment has been told they'll get one of the other doses instead - which suddenly eats into the country's stock pile of each, and sets future appointments back even further.
Pfizer said it was ramping up production by 10 per cent in light of the J&J halt.
Now, it says it will deliver 220 million doses by the end of May.
The U.S. has only fully vaccinated 28 per cent of its population.
It is behind Israel, Bahrain and Chile, all of which have considerably smaller economies and populations.
When counting just how many first vaccine doses have been given out, the UK is third in the world after Israel and Chile and the U.S. is fifth rather than fourth.
Around one million people a week (142,857 a day) are receiving the J&J vaccine.
It is considerably less than the number receiving Pfizer and Moderna doses (5million a week, 714,285 a day).
The announcement sent Johnson and Johnson shares plummeting by three percent and prompted health industry experts to ask what will now be done to keep the vaccine plan on course.
Experts said that the delay will inevitably set the vaccine effort back.
'This will delay our vaccination efforts,' Dr. Kavita Patel told CNBC, saying Pfizer and Moderna could not be expected to just 'pick up the slack' as the FDA and CDC says they will.
'This is a devastating blow to this J&J vaccine effort in the United States.
'Johnson and Johnson was incredibly useful for mobile vaccination. You could just do one shot.
'This is definitely going to cause a ripple effect in our attempt in the United States. In the next one to three weeks, we just can’t substitute it.'
While it has a lower efficacy rate than the other two vaccines, the J&J vaccine was considerably more efficient because it required just one dose, instead of two over 21 days.
It became available much later than Pfizer and Moderna, but 6.8million have had it since it March 1, when it was first dished out.
The US has ten million doses of it currently that have not yet been administered, and it ordered a total stockpile of 200million.
Former president Donald Trump led criticism of the announcement, which he said was hasty and unnecessary, and would send people 'up in arms'.
The FDA and CDC says people who received the vaccine more than a month ago do not need to worry.
People who received it within the last 'few weeks' should 'look for symptoms including sudden pain, shortness of breath, severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath, should seek medical treatment.'
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