As we await the ACIP’s recommendation on whether J&J’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine should be allowed to be used on American patients as soon as this weekend, some disturbing new details about rare but deadly side-effects have emerged.
According to slides shared online that were presented to the ACIP team during today’s meeting, two more people have died from a rare combination of blood clots and low platelet counts potentially linked to the J&J jab.
This brings the total known deaths to three, among nearly 7 million Americans who have received the shot. Seven more have been hospitalized, including four who landed in the ICU, while five have been discharged home, members of the CDC panel’s safety workgroup found Thursday.
As we have reported, federal health officials called for a nationwide pause in use of the shot on April 13 after they received reports about six women between 18 and 48 who had developed the blood clots. When ACIP first met last week to examine the safety concerns around the J&J shot, members decided they didn’t have enough data to make any recommendation.
The presentation, prepared by the CDC panel’s safety subgroup, asserts that the risk of the clotting syndrome appears to be highest for women under 50, a group that includes about 7M American women. Meanwhile, the risk appears to be less than one in 7 million doses for men and women over 50. So far, cases have been reported in people aged 21 to 77, almost all of them women.
Read more: 2 More Deaths Linked To J&J Vaccine, CDC Panel Says
