WHY ARE J&J VACCINES BEING PAUSED?
On Tuesday, April 13th, the FDA/CDC announced a rare but serious side effect including serious brain blood clots (CVST) combined with low platelet counts in six patients who received J&J vaccines.
- All patients are women under 50 years of age.
- Vaccines are being paused out of an abundance of caution.
WHAT IS WA STATE DOING ABOUT J&J VACCINES?
• The Washington State Department of Health will pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson (J & J) vaccine statewide starting immediately (4/13/21), following the guidance of the FDA/CDC.
• Use of that vaccine will be put on hold until we receive further recommendations from our federal partners about how best to move forward.Safety is the highest priority when it comes to all COVID-19 vaccines.
About 160,000 doses of J & J vaccine have been administered in Washington so far, out of more than four million doses total.
• At this time, we are not aware that any of the six patients who experienced these blood clots were Washington residents.
WILL J&J CAUSE ME TO HAVE A BLOOD CLOT?
• •
While adverse events such as blood clots are very unfortunate, it is important to remember that out of
6.8 million J & J vaccines administered nationwide, only six people are known to have experienced this side
effect.
That is a fraction of a percent, which shows us that this side effect, while serious, is extremely rare.
• For comparison:
o 1 in 366 people will have a car accident during a 1000 mile trip (Source: Dr. Lindquist in media availability on 4/13)
o 1 in 10,000 people will have side effects to popular antibiotics (Source: Dr. Lindquist in media availability on 4/13)
o Fewer than 1 in 1 million people will develop a blood clot from J&J vaccine.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I RECEIVED THE J&J VACCINE?
• People who have received the J&J vaccine who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider.
• Health care providers are asked to report adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System at https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html.
WHAT PEOPLE WITH J&J APPOINTMENTS SHOULD DO:
• If you have an appointment with a clinic that was scheduling the J&J vaccine, those clinics will be putting information out on their own channels to advise you of next steps.
• DOH was already seeing low dose allocation of J&J vaccine.
o Anticipated only 13k of 370k expected doses to be J&J.
o J&J is only 6% of the total vaccine received by Washington State.
- Because J&J was already in limited supply, pausing J&J vaccines should have minimal effect.
- We acknowledge that any cancelations or rescheduling due to the pause is an inconvenience and disruption, but it’s the right thing to do until we get more information on the vaccine.
IF YOU THINK YOU ARE HAVING SIDE EFFECTS:
• Contact your health care provider if you are having the following symptoms within 3 weeks of receiving vaccine:
o Severe headache
o Abdominal pain
o Leg Pain
o Shortness of breath
WHAT IS CAUSING THE BLOOD CLOTS
• No definitive cause has been identified yet, but the FDA says that a that a probable cause is a rare immune response generated by an individual after receiving the vaccine.
• Dr. Scott Lindquist, Acting State Health Officer, says that the 6 reported blood clots with J&J are associated with vaccine, however they not caused by the vaccine.
OVERALL J&J DATA (From Michele Roberts, as of 4/12/21)
• 320,000 J&J delivered in WA (state and federal allocations) o 225,000 of that is from our state allocation
- As of April 11, 2021: 160,000 administered and reported to the IIS as of 4/11
- 650 facilities have administered or been allocated J&J vaccine in WA
- These numbers will continue to change as more administration data comes in from last few days and doses continued to be delivered.
WHAT HAPPENS TO UNDELIVERED J&J DOSES?
• DOH is directing providers to hold onto undelivered doses for now.
WHAT WE’RE TELLING PROVIDERS TO DO
• Discontinue all use of J&J until further review.
We wish you a very wonderful new year. May this new year bring you more joy and happiness in your and your family’s lives. Let’s unite to make the world a better place.
