U.S. weighs next steps for Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 shot amid reports of clotting

Experts say COVID-19 overall poses a much bigger risk of death and hospitalization than the potential clot threat. The next phase comes Wednesday, when advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will debate in a public meeting how to handle the J&J vaccine while authorities try to nail down exactly what’s happening.

“Right now, we believe these events to be extremely rare, but we are also not yet certain we have heard about all possible cases as this syndrome may not be easily recognized,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said ahead of that meeting.

The clot concerns could undermine public confidence in a vaccine many hoped would help some of the hardest-to-reach populations — in poor countries or in places such as homeless shelters in the U.S.

“We know we are fighting a war against COVID-19,” said Dr. Peter Marks, the Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine chief. But when it comes to side-effects, “we don’t, in the United States, have a lot of tolerance for friendly fire.”

Marks said his agency recommended the J&J timeout less because of the number of reported clots than to make sure doctors know how to recognize and treat the unusual condition. One of the six women had the condition complicated by treatment with a blood thinner named heparin, he said — a treatment the government is warning doctors to avoid.

Walensky said the ability to spot such rare reports and take action fast “demonstrates that the safety systems we have in place are working.”

The setback for J&J comes as the worldwide death toll from COVID-19 approaches three million, including more than 560,000 who perished in the U.S., which continues to report tens of thousands of new infections every day and an average of almost 1,000 deaths.

So far, the J&J vaccine has been a minor player in U.S. vaccinations. More than 122 million Americans have received at least one vaccine dose, the vast majority with shots made by Moderna or Pfizer, and nearly 23 per cent are fully vaccinated.

Both companies are on track to have delivered 300 million doses each by mid- to late July — and federal health authorities stress that there are no signs of the unusual clots with the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been approved in Canada, but the country has not yet received any doses.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday that Canadian officials are closely monitoring the decision by U.S. health authorities.

Trudeau said Canada’s immunization campaign can continue at its current pace, even if there are significant delays in deploying the J&J shot, because deliveries of the Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca products are more consistent now, and 44 million doses of those three vaccines will be on hand by the end of June.

WATCH | Dr. Theresa Tam reacts to the U.S. decision:

Chief Public Health Officer Dr. Theresa Tam says the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will go through Health Canada’s review process to screen for adverse effects. 1:29

European regulators will make their own evaluation

Many European countries have struggled for supply. J&J delayed some of its European deliveries amid the clot evaluation, but Poland said it would use the batch it already has in hand. European medical regulators plan to issue their own evaluation of the J&J clot issue next week.

The U.S. set up intensive systems to track the safety of COVID-19 vaccines as they rolled out, knowing that side-effects too rare to have occurred in studies of thousands of people could pop up once millions rolled up their sleeves.

The clots in question are not typical blood clots. They occur in unusual parts of the body, such as veins that drain blood from the brain. And the patients also have abnormally low levels of platelets — cells that help form clots — a condition normally linked to bleeding, not clotting.

When those weird clots were spotted after AstraZeneca vaccinations, scientists in Norway and Germany raised the possibility that some people are experiencing an abnormal immune response, forming antibodies that disable their platelets. That’s the theory as the U.S. now investigates the J&J reports.

Health officials caution against confusing the normal flu-like symptoms that occur a day or two after many COVID-19 vaccination with the clot concern. The problematic clot symptoms, such as severe headache or severe abdominal pain, have occurred about a week to three weeks after the J&J shot.

For vaccine recipients, the headlines can be scary. Holli Vrenon, 35, who got her J&J shot three or four weeks ago in Reno, Nev., had flu-like symptoms after the vaccination and asked her brother, a doctor, what to think.

He told her to monitor her symptoms but not to worry too much, “but obviously it worries you,” Vrenon said. “If they’re suspending it, obviously people are getting side-effects.”