Johnson & Johnson Covid vaccine
US federal health agencies on Tuesday have recommended to pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. The decision came a few days after six women developed rare blood clots after vaccination. All six women were under the age of 50. J&J covid vaccine is one of the three vaccines approved for emergency use in the US. However, the other two vaccines developed by Moderna and Pfizer have not shown any such side effects until now.
The potential side effect of J&J is a blood clot in the veins that drain blood from the brain. This situation is called central venous sinus thrombosis. In the vaccine-associated cases like this, platelets in blood have been observed lower than normal. A similar rare problem of blood clotting has been seen in connection with the use of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine used in Europe.
Johnson & Johnson said it would delay rollout of the vaccine to Europe, after the complaints of side effects. Some other nations including South Africa also suspended use of J&J’s vaccine, until further clarification on the situation. However, France on Wednesday said that it will continue to vaccinate people above 55 years of age by using the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine, news agency Reuters reported.
Experts suggest that J&J’s single-dose shot and AstraZeneca’s low-cost vaccine are seen as effective weapons in the fight against a pandemic that has claimed more than three million lives. The pause in the vaccination could lead to vaccine hesitancy among people. Immunology experts clarified that the risk posed by the J&J vaccine appeared extremely low. As of April 13, 2021, about one in a million, in Six cases out of the 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine, were observed the side effects.
The fight against covid and efforts to control it are facing new challenges. Worldwide increasing cases of covid and its new mutants are a master of concern. As per 14 April 2021, total number of covid cases has reached almost 138 million and corona has taken almost 2.9 million lives till now.