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Three women have died from a rare blood clotting condition shortly after receiving the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S., officials said Friday, while a panel of experts considered whether to restart the use of inoculations of the company.
Information presented by U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention officials showed that a total of 15 women have been diagnosed with a rare combination of blood clots and a low platelet count, nine more than previously known. Of those, three have died, CDC reported, seven remain hospitalized and five have been discharged. More than 7 million people have received the vaccine in total.
The information was being presented to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, which will have to make a recommendation Friday later on whether J&J vaccines will be restarted, after recommending ten days ago that the distribution be paused.
Doctors said the combination of blood clots and a low platelet count was extremely rare. Michael Streiff, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University, told the committee, “Because of my experience treating these patients, I’ve never seen them.”
The committee met last week, however he could not agree whether the single vaccine should be recommended for universal use in adults. This followed a rare joint statement from the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration urging states and health care providers to stop the spike after six recipients suffered serious blood clotting problems.
Scientific advisers might recommend that the vaccine be stopped indefinitely, resumed for everyone, or restarted only for certain sections of the population. His finding will be directed to the CDC director for approval before the FDA makes a final decision on whether vaccinations against J&J should be restarted.
Experts have debated whether there is a definite link between the puncture and an uncommon medical condition in which blood clots occur along with a low platelet count. One problem with this condition is that anticoagulants that are generally used to treat clots can make the problem worse.
Some argue that even if there is a link, the benefits of jab outweigh the risks, as U.S. trials have shown that it has an effectiveness rate of approx. 66 percent to prevent moderate or severe Covid-19.
Earlier this week, the European Medicines Agency Found there was a “possible link” between the pad and the blood clots, but it was concluded that the benefits outweighed the risks. Germany announced Friday morning would allow the vaccine to be administered to everyone, but Sweden said it would keep the suspension in place.
Since the start of the break, the rate of inoculation in the United States has dropped from an average of 3.4 m a day to 2.9 m a day. According to the CDC, the country has administered 219 million doses, with just over half of all adults receiving at least one dose.
A similar problem with rare blood clots has altered the deployment of the Oxford / AstraZeneca vaccine, which, like the J&J puncture, uses an adenovirus, like the common cold, to administer the vaccine protein to the body. Vaccines developed by BioNTech / Pfizer and Moderna are used messaging RNA technology.
The J&J vaccine, the first single shot injection authorized for use in the United States, has experienced other setbacks. The FDA stopped vaccine production at a Baltimore plant earlier this week while the agency investigates the site, run by Emergent BioSolutions, which has been besieged by manufacturing problems.
The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Monday released a separate investigation into whether Emergent received contracts to manufacture vaccines “despite a long documented history of inadequately trained staff and quality control problems.”
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