Johnson & Johnson says two more recipients of its single-shot COVID-19 vaccine developed blood clots, bringing the total number of people known to have experienced the side effect to eight as administration of the jab has been put on hold across the country.
An otherwise healthy unidentified man, 25, and a woman, 59, who previously suffered from coronary artery disease, developed blood clots after receiving doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the New York Post reported Wednesday.
The man received the shot during a clinical trial for the vaccine on Sept. 21 of last year and began suffering from “fatigue, faintness, and headache” eight days after, a representative for the company said during an emergency Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory meeting. After he was hospitalized with a cerebral hemorrhage, he underwent repeated procedures, was later discharged from the hospital, and is currently listed as in “recovery,” the representative added.
The woman experienced “extensive” deep vein thrombosis after the vaccine became publicly available, and she began feeling symptoms seven days after getting the shot, according to the Johnson & Johnson representative.
JOHNSON & JOHNSON VACCINE PAUSE EXTENDED AS CDC COMMITTEE ADJOURNS WITHOUT DECISION
A third case of blood clotting was identified in another woman, 24, during the clinical trial period, but her cerebral hemorrhaging occurred after she received a placebo, meaning she was not administered a dose of the actual vaccine, the representative said.
The two new cases of vaccine recipients experiencing blood clotting follow six previously reported cases, all in women between the ages of 18 and 48. The blood clotting episodes led the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC to call for a pause of the administration of the vaccines, leading all 50 states to stop administration of the shots temporarily.
“Today FDA and @CDCgov issued a statement regarding the Johnson & Johnson #COVID19 vaccine. We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” the FDA announced Tuesday morning at 7 a.m.
The FDA said the recommendation was expected to last a “matter of days,” and a lack of recommendations by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday effectually meant an extension of that stance until the ACIP’s next meeting, which Dr. Amanda Cohn, a member of the committee, suggested would occur in a week to 10 days.
The slowdown of Johnson & Johnson vaccine distribution has been controversial. While some, such as former Surgeon General Jerome Adams, have applauded the decision as consistent with scientific safety standards, others, including former President Donald Trump, have lambasted the move as undermining public confidence in the vaccine.
“The Biden Administration did a terrible disservice to people throughout the world by allowing the FDA and CDC to call a ‘pause’ in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine,” the former president wrote in a tweemail on Tuesday. “The results of this vaccine have been extraordinary but now it’s [sic] reputation will be permanently challenged.”
Distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the third vaccine to earn a temporary use authorization by the FDA following Pfizer and Moderna, hit a few snags prior to the blood clots. A batch of 15 million Johnson & Johnson vaccines was ruined in Baltimore earlier this month, slowing overseas military inoculations. Johnson & Johnson was then given control of the Emergent BioSolutions plant on April 4, just days before the reports of blood clots began to emerge.
Despite the vaccine’s high efficacy in protecting against hospitalizations and death due to COVID-19, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was again called into question after a New Jersey woman said she and her husband both contracted the disease after their inoculation, with the husband now in critical condition in the hospital.
“I just can’t understand how he became so severe being fully vaccinated. I just don’t understand,” Laura Eugene said of her husband, Francisco Cosme. Eugene said both she and Cosme received Johnson & Johnson vaccines on March 6.
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More than 195 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered, and 123 million people have received at least one dose, representing 37.3% of the U.S. population, according to the CDC. About 31 million cases of COVID-19 have been diagnosed throughout the United States, and more than 560,000 deaths have been attributed to the disease, the agency said.
Representatives for Johnson & Johnson did not immediately reply to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
