Blood clot risk from J&J jab is negligible, says virus expert

BLOOD clots caused by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are “extraordinarily rare events”, a government adviser on coronavirus has said as he warned that no jab is free of side effects.

Prof Peter Openshaw, a member of the Covid-19 Clinical Information Network, said that while it was “possible” the vaccine could be potentially linked to blood clots, the risk remained minimal.

“We still don’t know whether they are directly related but it seems possible that they could be,” Prof Openshaw told BBC Radio 4.

The UK has ordered 30million doses of the vaccine, also known as Janssen, although it is yet to be approved for use by regulators.

Prof Openshaw said: “It wouldn’t be surprising to find the Janssen vaccine also causes rare blood clots because it’s based on an adenovirus technology which is not that far away from the technology being used in the AstraZeneca vaccine.”

Prof Openshaw said that blood clot incidents were “extraordinarily rare” and no vaccine would be completely effective or free from rare side-effects.

“This is on the scale of the risk of adverse outcome that you would expect if you were to get in the car and drive 250 miles, and many of us wouldn’t blink before taking that risk,” he said.