| In this week's edition of the Covid Q&A, we look at what's going on with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In hopes of making this very confusing time just a little less so, each week Bloomberg Prognosis is picking one question sent in by readers and putting it to an expert in the field. This week's question comes to us from Andrew in Westchester County, New York. Andrew raised concerns about the recent pause in the rollout of Johnson & Johnson shots. Andrew asks:
Will it be safe to get the J&J shot if they start giving it again?
To start, it's important to keep in mind that the pause on the rollout of Johnson & Johnson vaccines wasn't a failure of the system. It was the system working.
Even when speeded to market during a pandemic, vaccines are put to rigorous safety tests before they're approved. That's because unlike in most medical interventions, vaccines are given to healthy people, not sick ones. And authorities continue to closely monitor potential safety issues after vaccines hit the market. That's what happened in this case. Regulators halted the use of J&J's single-dose vaccine after six cases of rare and severe blood clots in the brain were reported in women ages 18 to 48, one of whom died. It isn't clear whether the vaccine was responsible.
"What the CDC did was quite right," says John Moore, an immunologist at Weill Cornell Medical College, referring to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "They've seen a safety signal, so they've put it on pause to investigate the safety signal. You have to err on the side of caution."
 A dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is administered at the Atlantic County vaccination megasite in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Photographer: Mark Kauzlarich/Bloomberg Six cases is a tiny fraction of the nearly 7 million people who received the J&J shot nationwide. Health experts disagree on whether halting use of vaccine is warranted. Some say regulators should keep it on hold until they know more, especially since there are two other vaccines available in the U.S. Others say delays risk slowing the U.S. immunization drive and creating more vaccine hesitancy.
"However rare the side-effects are, the public puts more attention on that they are serious than that they are rare," Moore says. "That is a human reaction."
Rare blood-clotting among people who have received the AstraZeneca vaccine in Europe provides some clues as to what might be going on since both vaccines use a similar approach. But either way, U.S. regulators have signaled that they will take time to understand the issue, and won't resume vaccinations until it's clear that they're safe. "The system is set up to detect things and react to them. So the system is doing its job," says Moore. "When more information is available, we can make a decision about what steps to take next." So getting back to Andrew's original question, we can't answer it until we know more from U.S. health regulators. But if they do decide to resume the shots, take it as a clear signal that they've determined the benefits outweigh any risks. Thanks to all of you for writing in this week! Next Sunday, we'll be answering the best question we receive again. So if you have any, we want to hear from you. Write to us at CovidQs@bloomberg.net — Kristen V. Brown | 
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