Johnson & Johnson is pushing back the EU rollout of its single-dose vaccine following reports of blood clots. Previously, US authorities had urged a pause on use of the vaccine. In Greece, authorities had said that J&J would deliver 33,600 doses on Wednesday, April 14, and that the vaccines would be available for administration on Monday, April 19. So far, there is no official statement on the issue by Greek health authorities. Note that the country continued to administer AstaZeneca, ven though some European countries had halted its administration due to the blood clots issue.
According to media, Johnson & Johnson announced that it would delay the rollout of its vaccine in Europe after US officials urged a pause on administering the jab earlier on Tuesday.
“We are aware of an extremely rare disorder involving people with blood clots in combination with low platelets in a small number of individuals who have received our COVID-19 vaccine,” the pharma giant announced in a statement, adding the company has been “reviewing these cases with European health authorities.”
The US company had sent its first vaccine delivery to Europe earlier this week. It was scheduled to send about 50 million doses by the end of June.
Earlier on Tuesday, US health agencies recommended an immediate pause on use of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, according to a US Food and Drug Administration statement released Tuesday.
According to the FDA, six vaccine recipients developed rare blood clots within about two weeks of being inoculated.
The recommendation, made in tandem with US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), means that federal vaccine distribution channels, including mass vaccination sites, will pause the use of the single-shot vaccine.
States and other providers are expected to follow.
After the J&J vaccine was granted emergency approval by regulators in late February, more than 6.8 million doses have already been administered in the US, which is a small fraction of the estimated 120 million people who have received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccines in the United States.
How long will the J&J suspension last?
A CDC advisory committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the six blood clot cases, and the FDA will also investigate.
“Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the CDC, and Dr. Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in the joint statement.
The New York Times reported that all six of the cases were found in women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died, and another has been hospitalized, the paper reported, citing officials.
Last week, the European Medicines Agency started a review into potential links between the J&J vaccine and four serious cases of “unusual blood clots.”
On Monday, J&J had announced that it would deliver at least 50 million doses to the European Union by the end of June.
EU reaction
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the benefits of all of the approved COVID-19 vaccines outweighed the potential risks. He said that authorities would slow down the rollout of vaccines if serious side effects were reported, however.
Eleanor Riley, a professor of immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Edinburgh, told Reuters that more data was needed to make a full conclusion. But “it remains the case that for the vast majority of people the risks associated with contracting COVID-19 far, far outweigh any risk of being vaccinated.”
Sweden will decide on use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the coming days. It will receive its first doses later this week.
The Nordic country previously paused the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine in March, but resumed its use for people 65 and older. (Deutsche Welle)
The Astra-Zeneca and the Johnson and Johnson will soon be retired from most countries that prefer to play it safe. Scientific reports also state the current vaccines are less or not effective at all against the multiple variants that are popping up everywhere. And yet, the Greek government is gambling everything on the fast, mass vaccination of the entire population, without knowing the long-term health consequences. Also, vaccination does not prevent transmitting the infection, and apparently the “immunity” is only short-term. We should be very concerned!
“Also, vaccination does not prevent transmitting the infection”. This statement is misleading. Typically the vaccines prevent over 75 % of people catching the virus at all. Those people cannot pass on the virus to others so it significantly reduces transmission.
“the “immunity” is only short-term”. This is also misleading. The very earliest vaccines were not administered until December 2020 and many people are only now starting to receive their second dose. It is completely impossible to know at this time for how long immunity will last.
Variants are certainly a problem but you are looking through the telescope from the wrong end. Rapid mass vaccination limits the spread of the virus and hence gives it less opportunity to develop variants. It is a lack of adequate control that has caused the variants of concern to become dominant.
6 out of 6.85 million doses.. Literally “1 in a million”…. J&J said the vaccine was 85% effective in preventing severe disease four weeks after vaccination in all adults. The vaccine offered complete protection against Covid-related hospitalizations four weeks after vaccination, the company said. My family in California ALL vaccinated with Johnson and Johnson over a month ago, two were women in the age group of concern. No problems except for soreness at injection site. I hope this “pause” will be over soon.