The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration have lifted a 10-day vaccine pause on the Johnson & Johnson shot.
“Above all else, health and safety are at the forefront of our decisions,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a press release. “Our vaccine safety systems are working. We identified exceptionally rare events, out of millions of doses of the Janssen COVID-19 administered, and we paused to examine them more carefully. As we always do, we will continue to watch all signals closely as more Americans are vaccinated.”
Yesterday, a government advisory panel voted 10-4, with one abstaining, to recommend resuming injections of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The panel members that voted against the plan to move forward said they did so because they wanted a more specific warning to women who appear to be more at risk of the blood clots.
The government agencies will now issue a fact sheet to medical providers warning them of the potential for extremely rare but serious blood clots.
There have been 15 confirmed reports of a rare condition that includes blood clots with low platelet counts following the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
