The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine’s rollout will be paused for the time being after federal officials expressed concerns over the reports of blood clots.
Both the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration paused the rollout due to “six reported U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine,” according to the FDA.
- The six cases involved women who were 18 to 48 years old. The incidents all occurred six to 13 days after vaccination, too, as I explained for the Deseret News.
This is the first time one of the approved COVID-19 vaccines has been paused in the U.S. due to safety concerns. But there are other vaccines out there, and questions may arise about those vaccines, too.
Should you be worried about Moderna and Pfizer?
Dr. Vivek Cherian, an internal medicine physician in Baltimore, told Insider there’s no reason to be concerned about the COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
- “Instead of taking away confidence from other vaccines, this should actually inspire further confidence in the oversight of these vaccines and definitely should not deter individuals scheduled for either Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to go through with their appointments,” Cherian said.
According to Insider, Pfizer and Moderna use a different technology compared to the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, too.
- J&J and AstraZeneca use viral-vector vaccines — which adds a coronavirus gene into the common cold virus — to help your body learn how to deal with the virus.
- Moderna and Pfizer use mRNA technology, which teaches your body how to handle the virus by showing your cells the virus’ genomes.
- “It’s safe to say there’s virtually no risk in individuals who received mRNA-based (vaccines), but we don’t really have that information yet as far as the viral-vector,” Cherian said.