UPDATE: U.S. Calls for Pause on Johnson & Johnson Vaccine After Clotting Cases

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: New York Times

WASHINGTON — Federal health agencies on Tuesday called for an immediate pause in use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine after six recipients in the United States developed a rare disorder involving blood clots within about two weeks of vaccination. All six recipients were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second woman in Nebraska has been hospitalized in critical condition.

Nearly seven million people in the United States have received Johnson & Johnson shots so far, and roughly nine million more doses have been shipped out to the states, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the C.D.C., said in a joint statement. “Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare.”

While the move was framed as a recommendation to health practitioners in the states, the federal government is expected to pause administration of the vaccine at all federally run vaccination sites. Federal officials expect that state health officials will take that as a strong signal to do the same. Scientists with the F.D.A. and C.D.C. will jointly examine possible links between the vaccine and the disorder and determine whether the F.D.A. should continue to authorize use of the vaccine for all adults or limit the authorization. An emergency meeting of the C.D.C.’s outside advisory committee has been scheduled for Wednesday.

The move could substantially complicate the nation’s vaccination efforts at a time when many states are confronting a surge in new cases and seeking to address vaccine hesitancy. Regulators in Europe and elsewhere are concerned about a similar issue with another coronavirus vaccine, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University researchers. That concern has driven up some resistance to all vaccines, even though the AstraZeneca version has not been authorized for emergency use in the United States.


Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/politics/johnson-johnson-vaccine-blood-clots-fda-cdc.html

---

Short article at WaPo. NYT added with more info.

Full WaPo headline: FDA, CDC call for pause in use of Johnson and Johnson vaccine after six reported cases of rare blood clots
Original WaPo headline: FDA, CDC pause use of Johnson and Johnson vaccine after six reported cases of rare blood clots

Original WaPo article - https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/13/johnson-and-johnson-vaccine-blood-clots/

The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday they are reviewing data involving six reported U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine. All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination.

[SheltieLover]

1. K&R!

[LisaL]

2. Sounds similar to AstraZeneca's issues.

Both J&J and AstraZeneca are adenovirus based vaccines.
So presumably clots have to do with use of adenovirus as a way to express spike protein. That's not going to help with worldwide efforts to be vaccinated, that's for sure.

[BumRushDaShow]

5. Yes... I just updated with more info from the NYT

[dalton99a]

12. Yep

Out of 34 million people who received the vaccine in Britain, the European Union and three other countries, 222 experienced blood clots that were linked with a low level of platelets. The majority of these cases occurred within the first 14 days following vaccination, mostly in women under 60 years of age.

On April 7, the European Medicines Agency, the main regulatory agency, concluded that the disorder was a very rare side effect of the vaccine. Researchers in Germany and Norway published studies on April 9 suggesting that in very rare cases, the AstraZeneca vaccine caused people to make antibodies that activated their own platelets.

Nevertheless, the regulators argued, the benefit of the vaccine — keeping people from being infected with the coronavirus or keeping those few who get Covid-19 out of the hospital — vastly outweighed that small risk. Countries in Europe and elsewhere continued to give the vaccine to older people, who face a high risk of severe disease and death from Covid-19, while restricting it in younger people.

Both AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson use the same platform for their vaccine, a virus known as an adenovirus. On Tuesday, the Australian government announced it would not purchase Johnson & Johnson vaccines. They cited Johnson & Johnson’s use of an adenovirus. But there is no obvious reason adenovirus-based vaccines in particular would cause rare blood clots associated with low platelet levels.

[hamsterjill]

18. It's not just the J&J vaccine that has affected platelets either

A doctor in Florida died. This is from January and there have been subsequent articles saying his death cannot be determined to have been connected to the Pfizer vaccine. But really???

The doctor had ITP, an auto immune issue where the spleen mistakenly filters out platelets.


https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/12/health/covid-vaccine-death.amp.html

[Buckeye_Democrat]

3. Bad week for J&J.

A NJ man is hospitalized with Covid weeks after being vaccinated with J&J too.

N.J. man tests positive for COVID nearly a month after receiving J&J vaccine
https://www.nj.com/coronavirus/2021/04/nj-man-tests-positive-for-covid-nearly-a-month-after-receiving-jj-vaccine.html
-----
A New Jersey man has been hospitalized with COVID-19 despite receiving Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose coronavirus vaccine last month, reports say.

Francisco Cosme, 52, of Edison, developed pneumonia weeks after receiving the inoculation March 6, according to abc7ny.com. He tested positive for the virus April 1, nearly a month after getting his shot.

He remains in critical condition at John F. Kennedy Medical Center in Edison.
-----

[LisaL]

4. Breakthrough cases happen with all vaccines, though.

NT

[mucifer]

7. There are people dying from covid after vaccination. It's not 100% :

From The Chicago Tribune regarding vaccination in Illinois:

No vaccine is perfect, and that’s true of these three. In Illinois as of Wednesday, 581 fully vaccinated people had tested positive for the virus more than two weeks after their last dose, resulting in 21 hospitalizations and 12 deaths, according to the state health department.

While tragic, the fatalities statistically are rare, compared with the 2.5 million people fully vaccinated in the state.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/coronavirus/vaccine/ct-prem-covid-surge-vaccination-chicago-20210409-cq2qlvlvcna5vgls65dwx5h3sm-story.html

[Buckeye_Democrat]

9. Thanks for that link!

There was an article published just a few weeks ago which incorrectly stated the three vaccines were all 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths. Perhaps it was referencing their trials?

Such a small number in Illinois divided by the total vaccinated is very close to 0%, though, so it's clearly very smart to get vaccinated compared to risking an infection without them.

[LisaL]

11. Yep, they were 100 % effective in trials, not real life.

But in Pfizer trial, nobody died even in placebo group, so trials are not 100 % representative of real life.

[mucifer]

14. Yeah and it really bothered me when Rachel Maddow said no one has died from covid after

vaccination. She should be VERY careful providing the correct information. Vaccines are AMAZING. But, nothing is 100%.

[LisaL]

15. Nobody died during the trials.

But trials are not a complete representation of real life.

[hamsterjill]

25. It bothered me, too, when Rachel said that.

Because it was not accurate. She did not clarify that she was referring only to trials.

[hamsterjill]

6. Very concerning.

This will not serve to boost confidence in vaccines. Yes, I realize that the J&J is different from the other two. But it received the same emergency approval as the others.

It will cast doubt on the approval process.

[BumRushDaShow]

8. I think the benefit of J&J's was that it was a 1-shot deal

which would be logistically easier to handle - particularly for the hard-to-reach communities.

But none of these vaccines are "officially approved" for (regular) use yet. They are all (except for AstraZeneca which is preparing to apply for it in the U.S.) only approved as an "Emergency Use Authorization" due to the obvious "emergency" that this unprecedented (modern) pandemic has unleashed.

[hamsterjill]

10. Yes.

It’s the “emergency use” authorization that I referred. All three vaccines received that, and only that, at this point.

The pulling of the J&J will cast doubt on the emergency use process and thus the other two vaccines.

Hopefully, this will be addressed quickly.

[LisaL]

13. Full authorization process takes 2 years.

So yea, lets wait two years to be completely sure while pandemic is raging and people are dying by the millions, variants are developing, and economy is collapsing.

[hamsterjill]

16. Oh good grief.

No one is saying that.

But let’s DO have the ability to reason that we may actually LEARN something during those two years that aids in tweaking the vaccines and saves more lives.

People have died from the vaccines and if your stance is “oh well, shit happens”, then I’m sorry but that’s not good enough.

[LisaL]

17. No one is saying that?

And your post about about casting doubt on approval process is saying what exactly? Waiting on full authorization takes two years.

[hamsterjill]

20. Do you own stock in the vaccines or what?

What is wrong with questioning? There are issues with the vaccines. They are not perfect. There is nothing wrong with wanting to keep more people from having negative reactions.

The issue with the J&J vaccine is obviously serious enough that it is being paused as per the article in the OP. So, are you saying it’s wrong to now wonder about the safety?

Obviously, the authorities would disagree with you or they wouldn’t be pausing the use.

[LisaL]

21. I am guessing you are still not vaccinated?

Waiting for the full approval?

[hamsterjill]

23. Wrong guess.

n/t

[Drunken Irishman]

45. The problem is reinforcing doubts.

We need MOST of America to get vaccinated. Let's say the most aggressive model out there is correct and 21% of Americans have contracted COVID over the last year (https://www.news-medical.net/amp/news/20210209/Model-estimates-COVID-19-cases-in-the-US-to-be-three-times-greater-than-reported.aspx), that means almost 80% of the country has not been infected and yet we absolutely need more than 21% of the country to get vaccinated for herd immunity to work.

If these people are skeptical of the vaccine, and haven't had COVID yet, they just may take their chances until more is known and we're not all essentially guinea pigs here.

I have been given both doses of the vaccine (Moderna) but I also know a lot of people who are scared of the unknowns and frankly, this news does nothing to help with that.

[JohnSJ]

46. While I understand what you are saying, the wording implies a suggestion of perhaps "not getting

the vaccine", in the meantime until it has gone through the full approval process. I know that isn't what you are saying, but it can come across like that.

[littlemissmartypants]

19. I don't think so. I do think it may adversely affect Janssen's production division's

Credibility though.

If there's good news it may be that this rare type of clotting disorder may get some strong support for needed examination and study that could lead to better outcome down the road.

[hamsterjill]

22. Absolutely.

A better outcome down the road is what we all want.

If this results in a better understanding and something put into place where fewer people have negative reactions, then that’s the desired outcome.

[BumRushDaShow]

24. AZ hasn't been approved for an EUA here yet

but are aiming to submit their application some time this month.

There is a distinct difference between the mRNA and adenovirus-derived vaccines that I think the media has communicated pretty clearly, so I don't think it would cast doubt on the entire review process - just on the early outcomes of the latter type of vaccines - J&J's and AstraZeneca's - which are closer to the more "traditional" style of vaccine development that uses some viral component (whether dead, weakened, or fragmented), and their approaches to capturing adverse reactions.

[hamsterjill]

27. Opinion noted.

I actually hope you are right, but I think a lot of people are already not comfortable with the emergency approval process and will use this to further their argument.

I live in Texas and I hear it all the time.

[BumRushDaShow]

30. "I live in Texas and I hear it all the time."

Well now that is probably a given there.

But you'd hear that just about everywhere.

The more this thing stays out and about, going from person to person circulating through community spread, the more chances it has to mutate into something more infectious and lethal. So the whole point of this exercise is to significantly reduce the community spread, which would reduce its ability to mutate (hopefully without the draconian lockdowns - which is obviously the other option that people certainly don't want and won't accept).

[FBaggins]

31. Much more than just that it's a single shot

It has the potential to be manufactured in far larger numbers, is much cheaper, and has fewer logistical challenges for distribution (e.g., temperature requirements).

For the US, none of those are too substantial - but at some point, the focus needs to turn to the rest of the world's billions.

[LisaL]

32. Yes, it can be distributed much more easily to the rest of the world.

NT

[BumRushDaShow]

34. Well I think the fiasco that recently happened at Emergent indicates

that the "logistical challenges" for J&J (at least domestically) are not somehow different from any other vaccine manufacturing. They are now already behind in the doses due to Emergent's lack of cGMP adherence, and that contract-manufacturer will probably be delayed in getting approval going forward until that is addressed.

I expect that once Merck gets their NC vaccine plants up and running via their agreement with Janssen to make this particular vaccine, they might have better outcomes.

[LisaL]

35. But whom is it going to be administered to?

Most of the elderly has been vaccinated, and apparently women under fifty are the ones these clots happen to.

[BumRushDaShow]

40. Oddly enough, despite my thankfully being able to independently get an appointment for a shot

(Moderna, with 1st dose 3/17 and scheduled 2nd dose 4/21 at a pharmacy near me), my city (Philly) who I signed up with per their recommendation almost 3 months ago, FINALLY sent me a notification of availability of appointments yesterday. They both called and left an automated notification message AND emailed me.

Their plan was for shots to be administered by a repurposed FEMA site at the PA Convention Center (previously used for a mass vaccination site of Pfizer vaccines), and that site would now be doing J&J shots.

Here in Philly we have MANY MANY "at home" 65+s (the bulk are "Baby Boomers" who sometimes don't consider themselves "seniors" ), so they are NOT in any "facility" and some are home-bound (including joint replacements and whatnot) and not able to stand in line at a mass vaccination site for hours. As of last week, far less than 1/2 of that group have been full vaccinated -

As expanded eligibility looms, Philadelphia races to vaccinate more than half its senior population

About 37% of people age 65 and older in Philadelphia, which has the largest share of senior citizens among America’s largest cities, have been fully vaccinated.

by Jason Laughlin, Laura McCrystal, and Chris A. Williams
Published Apr 8, 2021

Despite being eligible for almost a month, most of Philadelphia’s senior citizens have not yet received shots, even as the city is on the cusp of expanding COVID-19 vaccine access to its entire adult population.

About 37% of people age 65 and older in Philadelphia, which has the largest share of senior citizens among America’s largest cities, have been fully vaccinated, data from the Philadelphia Department of Public Health showed. Even among people 75 and older, who have been eligible for vaccination in Philadelphia since Jan. 19, 48% have received at least a first vaccine dose. The data show the city lagging behind the rest of the state — and the country.

https://www.inquirer.com/health/coronavirus/philadelphia-vaccine-seniors-65-eligibility-20210408.html

But unfortunately what happened early on, you had nearly half of the allocated doses for the city (which are given to us separately from the state and directly from the federal government) given to people who did NOT live in the city. In fact, the chain pharmacies were found to be kicking out actual qualified city residents for being able to make appointments, in favor of people from the suburban counties, who could come into the city, and get shots. That was finally rectified when the city forced the providers to request proof of residency.

How Rite Aid’s ‘glitch’ helped suburban residents get Philly’s vaccine supply

By Ryan Briggs, Nina Feldman March 4, 2021


Rite Aid locations in Philadelphia have vaccinated suburban residents with supplies of the city’s doses at a rate far exceeding their competitors — a phenomenon exacerbated by a computer glitch that paradoxically barred vulnerable Philadelphians from accessing the vaccine.

New data from the city’s Health Department released at the request of WHYY News shows that nearly 60% of more than 31,000 vaccine doses administered at Rite Aids in the city through the end of February went to out-of-city residents. For comparison, Walgreens and CVS locations in the city vaccinated 29% and 40% non-residents, respectively.

Rite Aid spokesperson Christopher Savarese said the pharmacy chain, which is currently the second-largest private provider of vaccines in Philadelphia, followed state regulations — which do not include county residency requirements.

Savarese could not immediately explain why the company, which operates roughly 80 stores in the city, had vaccinated so many more suburbanites.

https://whyy.org/articles/how-rite-aids-glitch-helped-suburban-residents-get-phillys-vaccine-supply/

The city is scheduled for their weekly COVID-19 briefing today, so I expect the media will have a field day. In fact, I just checked the City Health Department's twitter feed and found this from about 90 minutes ago -

Link to tweet

TEXT

Philadelphia Public Health
@PHLPublicHealth
Effective immediately, and in the interest of safety, the Health Department is STOPPING the use of Johnson & Johnson at all clinics. We will post here on changes as they are confirmed. If you have a J&J appt today, you should receive notification of any change.
8:59 AM · Apr 13, 2021

So that's the end of that!

[Major Nikon]

56. I don't think it was actually that much of a benefit, if at all

IIRC, both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are 80% effective after 1 dose. The J&J is 80% effective after 1 dose. Now I'm no epidemiologist, but it seems to me there's no benefit of the J&J vs either one of the others at 1 dose. The only difference is the others provide an additional benefit after the booster.

[BumRushDaShow]

58. The "benefit", as I listen to my city's (Philly) weekly COVID-19 presser

is that it didn't require people remembering to "come back" to get the 2nd dose. I guarantee that the "return for a 2nd dose" rate is NOT going to be "100%" among many populations in this city.

It was also easier to deliver a single-shot to hard-to-reach individuals like the homeless who are often moving from shelter to shelter or who are literally living on the streets, as well as to those many tens of thousands here who are "home bound" seniors and elderly (i.e., not in a facility and are either living alone at home or in an apartment and might or might not be or are being taken care of by a caretaker - whether paid or a family member). It also made it easier to deal with similar hard-to reach groups like the disabled (mentally and/or physically) in small congregate facilities.

I have an uncle who is no longer ambulatory and he was given the J&J shot last month during a home visit (he will be 78 this year).

So it's not so much the efficacy after one or two doses, but the reach and reducing the amount of follow-up logistics.

[inwiththenew]

26. Anti-vaxxers are having a field day with this on twitter

Claiming they've been vindicated and that this is just the effects we know about. Just wait until a bunch of people develop adverse effects a year or two from now.

[LisaL]

28. Somebody should tell them they could be developing covid caused adverse effects a lot sooner than a

a year or two from now.

[BumRushDaShow]

29. I'm sure they are.

The "average" person has no idea how vaccines get approved (takes several years) and we are in such an unprecedented time when human behavior could not be controlled enough to slow the spread, something (that had actually been successfully researched for a number of years already since SARS CoV-1) was needed right away to get a handle on it.

[IronLionZion]

39. COVID causes blood clots and worse in much higher percentages.

The vaccine blood clots are 1 in a million, which is comparable to what is seen in the regular population.

[flibbitygiblets]

49. This 👆

[littlemissmartypants]

33. My biggest pet peave is that it appears we totally missed the boat on

The use of contact tracing and selective lock downs. Much of this nonsense could have been avoided with a robust contact tracing program. Huge missed opportunity.

I actually think that would have a strong affect on covidiots. But maybe they're such numbskulls public ridicule for being a super spreader may not even work. I know the psychopaths don't care, never will.

I still think we need more contact tracing. Oh, well....

[BumRushDaShow]

37. I think at this point, based on actual "experience data"

voiced from a number of locations including my own city, the "contact tracing" piece has quickly fallen down the rabbit hole.

This is again where "human nature" comes into play, with refusals to respond to contract-tracer calls (on average, at least early on, the city was only able to reach about 60% of those contacted), and outright lying by the contact to the tracer about their whereabouts. That has sadly made what would have been a good way to notify a community of a potential spreading event, an abject failure.

From November 2020 -

Why contact tracing isn’t the COVID solution we thought it would be

By Nina Feldman, Alan Yu November 30, 2020


Matt Katz couldn’t be easier to find. He’s a journalist living in Philadelphia, and picks up the phone when strange numbers call. He’d given all his contact information to the company that tested him for COVID-19. And, after he got his positive results, he had nothing to do but isolate and wait for someone from the city to reach out and ask who he’d been in contact with over the last few days. But no one ever did. “I was infuriated,” said Katz, who lives in the city’s Graduate Hospital neighborhood. “This is something that they told us they were going to help us with.”

While he waited, Katz started doing his own contact tracing. His family got tested, and he called the other parents in his kids’ remote learning pod. He called his dentist, and his barber, and a friend with whom he’d had an outdoor lunch. Still, he felt he could have used the guidance of a professional in determining who counted as a contact or not. “I don’t think that we can all do it on our own,” he said. Yet that’s exactly what the city is asking people to do. Just a few days after Katz made his calls in mid-October (he never developed symptoms), the city announced that new daily case counts had exceeded its ability to contact-trace them, topping 200 a day.

The city released guidelines instructing those who test positive to do their own contact tracing. “We simply don’t have the manpower to do individual case management for every case that’s being reported today, given the very large numbers,” Philadelphia Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said. Because it is such a resource- and labor-intensive containment tool, contact tracing in Philadelphia and the rest of Pennsylvania never ramped up to the levels recommended to effectively contain the coronavirus. The stretches when the city’s contact tracing resources could keep pace with the virus came only during the periods when there was minimal community spread.

Just two weeks after the first confirmed case of the COVID-19 in Philadelphia, the Department of Public Health could no longer monitor those who were quarantining or their contacts. In April, efforts to build robust contact tracing operations were underway, but by early June the city had only hired 20 tracers. From July through mid-October — the period the health department’s staff of roughly 100 tracers and 20 case investigators had a handle on things — Philadelphia registered roughly 100 new cases a day, compared to more than 1,000 daily now.

Read more: https://whyy.org/articles/why-contact-tracing-isnt-the-covid-solution-we-thought-it-would-be/

I suppose if one lives in a village of a couple hundred people, it would be do-able. But when you are in a city with single neighborhoods alone averaging tens of thousands of people, then it's truly unworkable. The state of PA even attempted to encourage people with smartphones to download an app that operated on bluetooth to trigger an alert if the person was in proximity to someone who had tested positive and had entered that info into a database that the phone app had access to. Other states that also participated in use of this app include - Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, Oregon (pilot test).

But that effort seems to have also fizzled.

In essence, Americans have been conditioned to fear "Big Brother", so even when it comes to something that is life-saving, there will always be the "lack of trust" issue that surfaces.

[littlemissmartypants]

42. Next time and there will be a next time, sooner than we believe,

We need to demand better. And that future plan needs to be in development now!

Thanks for the additional info, BumRushDaShow. What a colossal failure. Very sad and infuriating.

❤

[BumRushDaShow]

43. From what had been reported

after the incidences involving the Ebola epidemic, President Obama HAD his folks develop a "plan" ("playbook" ) and that plan was summarily ignored and ditched by 45 and their stinky crew.

Trump team failed to follow NSC’s pandemic playbook

The 69-page document, finished in 2016, provided a step by step list of priorities – which were then ignored by the administration.


By DAN DIAMOND and NAHAL TOOSI

03/25/2020 08:00 PM EDT


The Trump administration, state officials and even individual hospital workers are now racing against each other to get the necessary masks, gloves and other safety equipment to fight coronavirus — a scramble that hospitals and doctors say has come too late and left them at risk. But according to a previously unrevealed White House playbook, the government should’ve begun a federal-wide effort to procure that personal protective equipment at least two months ago.

“Is there sufficient personal protective equipment for healthcare workers who are providing medical care?” the playbook instructs its readers, as one early decision that officials should address when facing a potential pandemic. “If YES: What are the triggers to signal exhaustion of supplies? Are additional supplies available? If NO: Should the Strategic National Stockpile release PPE to states?”

The strategies are among hundreds of tactics and key policy decisions laid out in a 69-page National Security Council playbook on fighting pandemics, which POLITICO is detailing for the first time. Other recommendations include that the government move swiftly to fully detect potential outbreaks, secure supplemental funding and consider invoking the Defense Production Act — all steps in which the Trump administration lagged behind the timeline laid out in the playbook.

“Each section of this playbook includes specific questions that should be asked and decisions that should be made at multiple levels” within the national security apparatus, the playbook urges, repeatedly advising officials to question the numbers on viral spread, ensure appropriate diagnostic capacity and check on the U.S. stockpile of emergency resources.


https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/25/trump-coronavirus-national-security-council-149285

An embedded copy of the plan is in the above article and is also available here (PDF file) - https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6819703/WH-Pandemic-Playbook.pdf

I expect that a more detailed plan, plus a "Lessons Learned" exercise, is already underway.

[mnhtnbb]

36. The FDA and the CDC will be looking for underlying disorders that would predispose

the women to these rare blood clots. Absent that, then it's a theorizing game as to what caused them to develop the clots.

Smoking? Birth control pills? Interesting that it's women of reproductive age.

[Backseat Driver]

55. Yup, but maybe the gals were still using their old plastic container of aesbestosied "baby powder."

Sorry, but not sure a 1-shot wonder with far less efficacy in trial is a good choice; nor a hastily prepared J&J product trusted.

That said, I have a cervix, my doc wouldn't prescribe the new contraceptives way back when because I was a smoker (to be fair, he was also a steadfast Catholic) and so I never used but sure would never stop other women for making that choice, and I still have mercury-laced amalgam fillings and have consumed a whole lot of glyphosate by way of veggies and grain products, but I guess no problems with those in the absence of any other known contraindication for a rare illness, huh?

Better life through chemicals? You gotta pick your battles wisely and still retain a notion that stuff ought to be more thoroughly researched, FDA approved or not. Believing in science's findings seems the best our lifecycles permit! And one needs to be their own health advocate!

That said - I'm now fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine and loss of the J&J vaccine protection for this pandemic event will provide ammunition to the anti-vaxers and stall out a "best effort" to reduce reduce spread of SARSCoVid-2 that gives one, et al variants, CoVid-19. It's worth being an experimental guinea pig.

[turbinetree]

38. I was given this vaccine about four to five weeks ago, and I had no issues except

for a sore arm, and a little nauseated about a day later, other than this how many others have had the same feelings......

[Marigold]

41. Received J & J yesterday......

I just got this yesterday. The day before this wonderful news came out, sarcasm. I have a sore arm, a headache, and am a little light headed. Somewhat worried today. Will we see more of these clotting issues down the road, and what are the long term effects? Trying to put this in perspective, but it's hard.

[turbinetree]

48. I am no doctor and I have a heart serious heart issues and my blood type is AB positive

so in my humble opinion I think it has something to do with blood type and I realize that there is a lot of information out there, but I having spoken with my heart doctor and my primary my blood type puts me at a further risk to this virus. And also with my RH factor my blood type is more susceptible to clotting, so that being said..........everything will be fine and welcome to DU.......

[Marigold]

53. AB Positive too

My blood type is AB positive too, so yes, a little concerned about the clotting. I'm trying to keep things in perspective, but it's hard. Thank you.

[turbinetree]

59. Everything will be fine and your welcome

[oldsoftie]

44. Six cases out of 7 MILLION? It bears watching, but to STOP? Seems overblown.

If thats the metric, then EVERY medicine on the market would have to be pulled due to possible serious side effects that are listed

[BumRushDaShow]

50. The request was to "pause", not "stop". From what I understand from the OP article, there is this--

Federal officials are concerned that doctors may not be trained to look for the rare disorder if recipients of the vaccine develop symptoms of it. The federal health agencies said Tuesday morning that “treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered” for blood clots.

“Usually, an anticoagulant drug called heparin is used to treat blood clots. In this setting, administration of heparin may be dangerous, and alternative treatments need to be given,” the statement said.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/us/politics/johnson-johnson-vaccine-blood-clots-fda-cdc.html

What I think they will probably recommend to happen is for some sort of follow-up to check on those who received it because the reported reactions happened a week to 2 weeks after and people might not know if they are actually having one and/or how to report it and doctors may not know what to look for, nor how to treat it... The incidences could be higher than what has been tracked but you just don't know.

CDC offers a "V-Safe" app so people can report their experiences with a vaccine (I have been using it), but obviously not everyone has a smartphone, let alone are willing/able to use such an app so they can help to provide more data. I'm at the reporting "once a week" stage from the 1st dose of Moderna (2nd is due 4/21), where the app had already sent a reminder and link to use when I do get the 2nd dose so I can report on reactions after that.

[csziggy]

57. That's what stood out to me

How many people per million have blood clots without a vaccine? Six cases out of seven million does not seem to be a statistically significant number. If the J&J vaccine was the one offered to me, I'd take it even with this information and with my family history of blood clots. I am much more worried about a Covid infection than I am about blood clots.

[Miguelito Loveless]

47. Six cases out of 6 million vaccinations...

So, basically a 1 in 1 million chance of an adverse effect.

In any given year your chance of being in an auto accident is 1 in 50.

People suck at risk assessment.

[Cetacea]

51. Corporate sabatouge . The big two have killed more people

I seem to recall some twenty people dying in Norway early on. A local doctor here died a week after his Moderna shot. He was otherwise healthy. Yet, crickets.

JJ has been tested during the biggest surge and in other countries and the trials were longer and larger.

[hamsterjill]

52. Always a possibility.

That doctor’s death sure didn’t get much press, did it? I learned about it by accident because my daughter had ITP (the same condition as the doctor) and we consulted her doctors prior to her getting vaccinated.

The doctors were not aware at the time of the doctor who had died, but they researched the information available and agreed that my daughter should be vaccinated BUT that her platelets should be monitored. This gave us all a sense of calm and we were grateful to have the information.

Platelets and clotting seem to be the common denominator for many of the issues. Everything learned will provide benefit. That’s my hope at least.

[Cetacea]

54. +1000

Thanks