A3
THE ASTORIAN • THURSDAY, APRIL 15, 2021
Johnson & Johnson vaccine paused
By AIMEE GREEN
and KALE WILLIAMS
The Oregonian
Oregon public health
offi cials Tuesday announced
the immediate suspension
of the Johnson & Johnson
COVID-19 vaccine as the
Food and Drug Administra-
tion recommended putting
a “pause” on the treatment
over rare health concerns.
“Oregon Health Author-
ity has asked all of the state’s
vaccine providers to imme-
diately stop administering
the Johnson and Johnson
vaccine, per the announce-
ment from the U.S. CDC
(Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention) and FDA
this morning,” the agency
said in a statement. “This is
out of an abundance of cau-
tion as they review six cases
of a rare and severe type of
blood clot in women ages
18-48 after vaccination.”
The six cases came
among nearly 7 million peo-
ple who have received the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine,
according to federal offi -
cials. One person died and
another is in critical condi-
tion, according to an FDA
offi cial.
Some experts worry that
the news will embolden
the anti-vax movement. Dr.
Paul Cieslak, a senior health
adviser at the Oregon Health
Authority, is concerned.
“This may give them
some additional fuel,”
Cieslak said. “But I want to
point that this was about one
in a million vaccine doses
administered and we still
don’t know whether the vac-
cine was causally related to
these side eff ects.”
On Tuesday, President
Joe Biden declared that even
with a temporary loss of
Johnson & Johnson’s one-
shot vaccine, there is a huge
supply of Pfi zer and Mod-
erna vaccines, enough that
“is basically 100% unques-
tionable, for every single
solitary American.”
Patrick Semansky/AP Photo
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks alongside White House COVID-19
response coordinator Jeff Zients during a press briefi ng at the White House on Tuesday.
The advisory by the
FDA and CDC — citing a
need to investigate reports
of rare but potentially dan-
gerous blood clots — was
“testimony to how seri-
ously we take safety,” said
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the
nation’s top infectious dis-
ease expert.
In the opening months of
his presidency, Biden has
put top priority on a robust
response to the virus that has
killed 559,000 Americans,
with a vaccine campaign in
which nearly 50% of adults
have received at least one
shot.
The CDC’s Advisory
Committee on Immuniza-
tion Practices was set to
meet Wednesday to delve
into the cases of blood clots
and “assess their poten-
tial signifi cance,” accord-
ing to the CDC and FDA’s
‘I THINK WE WILL KNOW
WITHIN A COUPLE OF DAYS
WHETHER THE PAUSE IS
GOING TO BE MORE OR LESS
INDEFINITE OR WHETHER
WE’LL GET THE GREEN LIGHT.’
Dr. Paul Cieslak | senior health adviser
at the Oregon Health Authority
statement.
“I think we will know
within a couple of days
whether the pause is going
to be more or less indefi -
nite or whether we’ll get the
green light,” Cieslak said.
The Johnson & Johnson
vaccine received emergency
use authorization in the U.S.
from the FDA in late Febru-
ary with great fanfare, with
hopes that its single-dose
and relatively simple stor-
age requirements would
speed vaccinations across
the country. The Pfi zer and
Moderna vaccines were not
aff ected by Tuesday’s pause.
More than 85,000 Ore-
gonians have received the
one-shot Johnson & John-
son vaccine, and the fed-
eral government shipped the
state 124,400 doses of the
Johnson & Johnson vaccine
last week for a total of about
213,000 received. Oregon
Health Authority spokes-
man Tim Heider said the
state has distributed the vac-
cine to 225 locations state-
wide, and told vaccination
providers to hold onto what
they have for now. The vac-
cine can be safely stored at
between 36 and 46 degrees
Fahrenheit for up to three
months, according to John-
son & Johnson.
Heider said it’s too early
to say how the halt in vac-
cinations will aff ect the
longterm timelines for get-
ting the vast majority of Ore-
gon’s population vaccinated.
At least immediately,
the pause on Johnson &
Johnson vaccinations isn’t
expected to dramatically
hinder the pace, beyond a
slowdown that already was
expected. Offi cials recently
announced they were plan-
ning to give far fewer doses
of the Johnson & Johnson
vaccine over the next few
weeks, after problems pro-
ducing the vaccine in the
U.S. and limitations pro-
ducing it overseas resulted
in huge cutbacks in federal
shipments to states.
Oregon received 7,300
doses this week and was
expecting about 2,000 next
week, although numbers
weren’t yet available for
additional doses that also
might be sent to pharmacies
through the federal retail
pharmacy program this
week and next.
In a joint statement Tues-
day, the CDC and FDA said
they were investigating clots
in the women who showed
symptoms six to 13 days
after vaccination. The clots
were observed along with
reduced platelet counts —
making the usual treatment
for blood clots, the blood
thinner heparin, potentially
“dangerous.”
According to the Ore-
gon Health Authority, none
of the six women were from
Oregon.
Johnson & Johnson
issued a statement advising
people who’ve received its
vaccine to contact a health
care provider if they expe-
rience symptoms of blood
clots — including head-
ache, abdominal pain, leg
pain or shortness of breath
within three weeks of their
vaccinations.
Cieslak said people
should be on the lookout for
a severe headache and not
just a mild one. He said even
women who’ve received the
vaccine should know they’re
at “very low risk” for blood
clots.
Johnson & Johnson also
said it was halting the roll-
out of its vaccine in Europe,
where several countries were
planning to start administer-
ing the vaccine within days.
The Associated Press
contributed to this report.
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