US HEALTH REGULATOR RECOMMENDS RESUMING JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINATIONS

Sat 24 April 2021:

Use of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine should be resumed in the United States despite evidence that it is linked to extremely rare but potentially deadly blood clots, advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Friday.

The jab was put on hold April 16 after exceedingly rare, but potentially fatal blood clots, began to emerge in patients who had received the vaccine.

In all, 15 women were reportedly diagnosed with the rare blood clots out of 8 million who received the US’s sole single-dose shot.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to recommend the resumption of the vaccine, saying its health benefits outweighed any potential risk, according to multiple reports.

The advice is not final, but US regulators are set to quickly evaluate it when considering further action on the vaccine.

Top health officials have said they hope for a quick return to the vaccine’s use after the panel meets.

“The benefits do clearly outweigh the risk from a population and individual perspective,” said Dr. Beth Bell, a member of the advisory panel and a clinical professor in the department of global health at the University of Washington in Seattle.

“It’s a new risk. It’s admittedly an extremely small risk and smaller than many other risks that we choose to take every day,” she added.

The US is also rolling out vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, but both of those shots require two separate doses spaced weeks apart.