The US FDA has announced that it will limit the use of the Johnson & Johnson / Janssen vaccine against Covid due to the risk of “rare but severe thrombosis”. For the same reason, the CDC, the American Center for Disease Control, recommends using Pfizer and Moderna instead of Johnson & Johnson.
The vaccine manufactured by Janssen may henceforth be used only for adults who reject Pfizer or Moderna “for personal reasons” or who cannot receive them. Out of approximately 19 million doses of Johnson & Johnson administered in the US, 60 cases of thrombosis have been detected, of which 9 are fatal.
The decision is just the company’s latest vaccine restriction. In December, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already recommended using Moderna and Pfizer over J&J due to its safety concerns.
The problem can occur within two weeks of administration
The head of the FDA vaccine controls team, Dr Peter Marks, said the agency decided to limit the vaccine after checking the data on the risks of life-threatening blood clots and concluding that they are limited. to the J&J vaccine.
“If there is an alternative that appears to be equally effective in preventing serious outcomes from Covid-19, we’d rather see people opt for that,” Marks said. “But we were careful to say: compared to no vaccine, this is still a better option.
The problem can occur in the first two weeks after vaccination, he added: “so anyone who was vaccinated six months ago can sleep peacefully.”
