All drugs have risks

It’s a perilous situation.

The biggest threat, however, comes not from reports this week of rare blood clots linked to Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine that’s led to a pause in its rollout in a number of countries.

The danger experts most worry about is public overreaction to that news, leading to increased hesitancy about all COVID-19 vaccines — in the midst of the pandemic’s deadly third wave.

Health experts emphasize the relative risk of the observed side-effect is still statistically miniscule. Nearly seven million J & J doses have been administered in the U.S.; the chances of having a blood clot are literally less than one in a million.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called for the temporary halt after six U.S. women between 18 and 48 developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST), a brain blood clot combined with low platelet counts, after a J & J vaccination.

One woman died, several others were hospitalized.

Temporarily pausing the one-dose J & J vaccinations was prudent while the FDA and CDC investigate.

Astrazeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine — which uses the same decades-old adenovirus vector vaccine technology as J & J — has been similarly linked with rare blood clots.

After a pause in many countries late last month to investigate why that was happening, most nations restarted using Astrazeneca’s vaccine but restricted its use to older individuals, since the rare blood clot events seemed to primarily affect younger people, especially women.

That’s the most likely outcome with the J & J vaccine — modification of public health advice regarding which populations should get it.

Health Canada, which has deemed J & J’s vaccine safe and effective for use here, is standing by its approval but has asked for information on the rare side-effect events. The first shipments of 10 million doses the federal government ordered from J & J aren’t expected until the end of this month, at the earliest.

Beyond ensuring vaccines like those produced by Astrazeneca and J & J get directed at best-suited populations, health-care experts also say that, if caught early, they know how to treat the rare blood-clotting condition.

The regulatory response to the side-effect events shows safety protocols are working, experts say.

Freaked out by this news?

It’s vital to keep perspective. While one woman tragically died in the U.S. as a possible side-effect of a J & J COVID-19 vaccination, the coronavirus has so far killed more than 564,000 Americans.

In Canada, there’s been almost 23,500 deaths out of 1.09 million cases.

All drugs have risks. We try to minimize those, but use them nevertheless because the diseases they target represent the greater threat.