CDC vaccine advisers review Johnson & Johnson shot after reports of rare blood clots - The Washington Post

A federal vaccine advisory committee said Wednesday it wanted more data before deciding whether to resume use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine, leaving in place a pause that federal officials had recommended because of a rare and severe type of blood clot identified so far among six of the 7.5 million people who received the shot.

At a hastily arranged emergency meeting a day after federal officials recommended a pause in use of the vaccine, advisers to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention agreed to reconvene within 10 days, acknowledging the urgency of making a decision about a vaccine that is a key part of the strategy to end the pandemic in the United States and globally.

When the panel reconvenes, members could vote at that time to recommend the vaccine for people 18 and older, continue an overall pause or pause use for certain age groups.

The share of people who thought the vaccine was “very or somewhat unsafe” increased in a matter of days, from 26 percent of people during the past weekend and Monday to 39 percent on Tuesday after federal officials recommended a pause.

The vaccine has been viewed as a powerful tool for building immunity among vulnerable communities, such as homebound people or homeless populations who might not be able to return for a second shot.

Tom Shimabukuro, of the vaccine safety team at the CDC, explained that the rare, severe clots were especially alarming because they were accompanied by low levels of blood cells involved in clotting — a combination virtually unheard of among healthy, young people.

The combination has also been seen, rarely, among people who received vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford.

In a company presentation, Aran Maree, chief medical officer for Janssen, the division of Johnson & Johnson that developed the vaccine, also presented data on two cases of clots in people who received the vaccine in the clinical trial, one of whom was a 25-year-old man with a hallmark of the symptoms.

The blood clots are similar to those reported by several European countries after the use of AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, which uses a similar technology.

Food and Drug Administration and CDC officials said they decided to recommend pausing the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine because they were worried about the possible harm if clinicians did not know how to detect, manage and treat the complication.

They want to make sure medical professionals are aware that blood clots potentially associated with a vaccine should not be treated with the conventional drug heparin, which could exacerbate the clots.

Out of 34 million people given vaccinations in Europe, regulators there have identified 169 cases of brain blood clots and 53 cases of abdominal clots that raised suspicion.

The type of brain blood clots identified in the six U.S.

The normal rate of those blood clots in the general population is 2 to 14 per million people in a year.

The recommendation to pause the Johnson & Johnson rollout resulted in swift action, with the U.S.

About 7.5 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine had been administered nationwide as of Wednesday.