April 13,2021 Daily Caller by Christian Datoc
The Biden administration put a cautionary pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine Tuesday after 6 out of the nearly 7 million Americans who received Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine developed the blood clots, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration recommended the pause “out of an abundance of caution” in a joint statement Tuesday morning. (RELATED: Germany Reports More Blood Clot Cases Associated With AstraZeneca Vaccine)
“In these cases, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia),” Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC and Dr. Peter Marks, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research said in the statement. “All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination.”
The statement added that the CDC will convene an advisory meeting on Wednesday to discuss the six cases and offer a determination regarding future use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. (RELATED: China Says Its COVID-19 Vaccines Don’t Work Well, Then Backtracks)
The White House issued an additional statement to reporters in which coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients claimed the pause would not interrupt the administration’s pace of vaccinations, as Johnson & Johnson vaccines make up “less than 5 percent of the recorded shots in arms in the United States to date.”
He added that the government would further surge the distribution of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to make up for the pause and pledged work with “state and federal partners to get anyone scheduled for a J&J vaccine quickly rescheduled for a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine”
Adm. Brett Giroir — one of the Trump administration’s top officials on the Operation Warp Speed vaccine initiative — also called the decision “an appropriate step.”
“Such clots occur regularly in the population, so this MAY or MAY NOT be related to the vaccine,” he tweeted Tuesday morning. “That is why the investigation and pause is appropriate.”
AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, which has not been granted a U.S. Emergency Use Authorization by the FDA, faced similar blood clotting concerns in recent weeks. The European Union briefly paused that vaccine’s use in March, and the United Kingdom has sought to find alternative vaccines to provide to low-risk individuals.
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