Did you get the J&J vaccine?
Here’s what you should know
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration have recommended suspending the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine due to blood clots in six of 6.8 million patients nationwide, those who received the single shot might want to know what to do next.
Here are answers to questions some might have about the one-dose J&J vaccine:
What do you do if you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
First, check the calendar, said Dr. Michael Parry, director of infectious disease at Stamford Hospital.
“If you had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine more than three weeks ago, you’re probably going to be fine,” he said, adding all of the adverse reactions occurred within six to 13 days of getting the shot.
For those within that window, the CDC recommends people monitor themselves for severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath. If people have these symptoms, they should contact a doctor immediately, health experts said.
What is causing the problem?
According to the CDC and FDA, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia).
All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48 within a brief period after getting the vaccine.
“Treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered,” the CDC and FDA said in a statement. “Usually, an anticoagulant drug called heparin is used to treat blood clots. In this setting, administration of heparin may be dangerous, and alternative treatments need to be given.”
What are the chances of getting blood clots if you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?
Chances are slim a person would get a blood clot from the vaccine, according to at least one expert. In the general population, five CVST cases out of 1 million occur every year, said Kagya Amoako, assistant professor and graduate coordinator of biomedical engineering at the University of New Haven.
“Right now, 6 out of 6.8 million recipients of the J&J vaccine have developed CVST, so chances of someone developing CVST is rare,” Amoako said. “Furthermore, we don’t know if, in fact, the CVST cases are related to the J&J vaccine, given these rare diseases occur anyways in the general population.”
What is the difference between the vaccines?
According to the CDC, the J&J vaccine is a viral vector vaccine, meaning it uses a modified version of a different virus (the vector) to deliver important instructions to cells.
Moderna and Pfizer/ BioNTech are mRNA vaccines, meaning they teach the cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune response inside people’s bodies.
Parry said the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca, which was also linked to blood clots, also used a viral vector. However, he said, it’s unclear whether there’s a connection between the clots and the kind of vaccine being used.