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This is an EXTREMELY RARE potential side effect of the vaccine, health officials do not yet know if it is tied to the vaccine. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been administered to over 6.8 million Americans and this condition has only appeared in 6 people.
The people that developed the condition were all women, between the ages of 18 and 48. They developed symptoms between 6 and 13 days after receiving the vaccine. However, regardless of your age, if you see the following symptoms within 3 weeks after inoculation contact your health care provider:
Severe headache
Abdominal pain
Leg pain
Shortness of breath
There is concern that even if these symptoms are brought to a health care professional, they might not be trained to look for the rare disorder. Further, federal health agencies noted that “treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered for blood clots.” The use of the commonly used blood thinner herapin may actually be dangerous to those with cerebral venous sinus thrombosis.
Unfortunately, this is not the first time a COVID-19 vaccine has been linked to blood clots. Earlier this month, European officials began to investigate links between the AstraZeneca vaccine and rare cases of blood clots. The blood clots are the same as the ones seen in potential response to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine- cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. These blood clots occur in veins within the brain and accompany low platelet counts.
The AstraZeneca vaccine uses an adenovirus to stimulate immune system cells, which is also what the Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses. Specifically, a modified version of a chimpanzee adenovirus is used to enter human cells but not replicate within them. A coronavirus gene has been inserted into the adenovirus DNA, allowing the vaccine to target spike proteins COVID-19 uses to enter our cells. This is unlike the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which use mRNA technology to teach your cells to manufacture a spike protein.
Researchers speculate the combination of blood clots and low platelet counts is an immune response. Similar to a condition in patients treated with blood-thinner herapin. This combination of blood clots and low platelet count occurred in people who had received the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Similar to the occurrences in the United States, cases were in women under the age of 60 and symptoms appeared within 2 weeks of the first dose. However, similar to reports about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, this reaction is extremely rare. Out of the 17 million people in the UK and EU that received that vaccine, less than 40 cases of blood clots were reported.
However, the AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved by the World Health Organization, European Medicines Agency, and UK medical officials for continued use. According to officials, the evidence “does not suggest” that the vaccine causes blood clots.
It is unclear what will happen in response to Tuesday’s halt of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. My speculation is that the vaccine will be approved for continued use with further caution, as was done with the AstraZeneca vaccine. The connection between Johnson & Johnson and blood clots will most likely be found to be coincidental, as people with the condition potentially had it or were at risk of developing it before receiving the vaccine.
This should not hinder you from accepting any other Covid-19 vaccine- as the mRNA vaccines use completely different platforms to achieve immunity. Unfortunately, it will likely be harder to get a vaccination moving forward, as Johnson & Johnson vaccines are temporarily halted.