On April 13, US federal health regulators recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine while they investigated six reports of blood clots in women ages 18 to 48
People arrive at a mobile Covid-19 vaccine site in Wilmington district of Los Angeles, California on April 13,2021, where the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine was due to be administered but changed to the Pfizer vaccine following a recommendation from federal health officials.
Image: Frederic J. BROWN / AFP
On Tuesday morning, U.S. federal health regulators recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine while they investigated six reports of blood clots in women ages 18 to 48. One has died, and a second is hospitalized in critical condition.
As of Tuesday, 7.2 million people in the United States had received the vaccine without any other serious adverse reactions reported.
Experts have yet to determine to what extent, if any, the vaccine is responsible for the clots. But the investigation follows actions by European regulators who concluded that a vaccine made by AstraZeneca may also be the cause of a similar, extremely rare clotting disorder.
U.S. and European public health experts have emphasized that for most people, the benefits of the COVID vaccines far outweigh the risks.
Several countries in Europe last week restricted use of the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine to older adults because rare cases of a blood disorder were occurring in younger people. The AstraZeneca vaccine has not been authorized in the United States.
©2019 New York Times News Service