The very common vaccine ingredient at the center of J&J, AstraZeneca drama

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Out of an abundance of caution, US officials on Tuesday recommended pausing use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine. Officials linked the vaccine to six peculiar illnesses in which people developed life-threatening blood clots in combination with low levels of blood platelets, the cell fragments in blood that form clots. One person died from their condition and another is in critical condition.

It’s unclear if the vaccine caused the illnesses. Even if it did, the illnesses would represent an exceedingly rare side effect. The six cases occurred among more than 6.8 million people in the US who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. That would make it a side effect seen in fewer than one in a million. The risk of hospitalization and death from COVID-19, which the vaccine protects against, easily exceeds those odds. Without question, the benefits of the vaccine outweigh the potential risks.

Still, with robust supplies of vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNtech—neither of which have been linked to these unusual cases—US officials took the cautious route of pausing Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine while they investigate the cases further and inform clinicians about how to spot and treat any others that may arise. This latter point is critical, because if doctors try to use standard blood clot treatments in these vaccine-linked cases, the outcomes can be fatal.

Of course, the other critical aspect of this situation is that officials have seen these unusual cases before—linked to a similar COVID-19 vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and researchers at the University of Oxford. The AstraZeneca vaccine is not yet authorized for use in the US, but it has been authorized in many other countries, including those in the European Union. In recent weeks, regulators in the EU and the UK have investigated dozens of eerily similar cases, involving dangerous blood clots coupled with low platelets. Some estimates have pegged the reported case rate of one in 100,000 people vaccinated.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/the-very-common-vaccine-ingredient-at-the-center-of-jj-astrazeneca-drama/

[Effete Snob]

1. That's absolutely brilliant

A headline about a “common ingredient” and four paragraphs of text - none of which reveal the headlined ingredient, thus requiring further clicking and scrolling.

Is this sort of “revenue friendly” writing technique being taught formally somewhere?

It’s ingenious.

I, for one, am glad that I know which vegetable to never eat, and that I have learned the one simple trick to remove earwax safely.

[Ms. Toad]

3. The adenovirus is the common ingredient.

It is identified in the sub-heading: Adenoviruses are an obvious link, but a puzzling suspect in the dangerous cases.

Also in paragraph 5:

Trying now to connect all the dots and find answers, experts are eyeing the most obvious connection: both vaccines use an adenovirus vector, a viral delivery system used regularly in vaccine development.

Just a start.

[Native]

2. And the ingredient is....wait for it..... an adenovirus vector.