COLUMBUS, Ohio — Many questions remain Tuesday after the CDC and FDA recommended a pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The agencies announced an investigation into reports six women had potentially formed rare blood clots following their shot.
The FDA and CDC say it may take several days before the details of the investigation into its recommendations are released.
Dr. Joseph Gastaldo is an Infectious Disease doctor at OhioHealth. He recommends anyone experiencing severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine seek medical attention.
“[Tuesday’s] pause is to not only get messaging out there to healthcare providers but also for patients to look out for any of these symptoms, and if you develop these symptoms within a three week period to go to your healthcare provider so they can evaluate you appropriately and, if needed, treat you appropriately with these rare unusual type of clots,” said Dr. Gastaldo.
When asked why these six cases have only been reported in women, Gastaldo said autoimmune diseases are seen more in women.
“This is the proposed medical reason to why this happens,” said Gastaldo, “a lot of this has to do with research that’s been done on the AstraZeneca vaccine. For reasons we don’t know yet it’s thought that either the DNA or the adenovirus itself causes the production in rare people of an antibody that attacks your platelets.”
Gastaldo says doctors can test for low platelet counts if a patient experiences these symptoms.
“Why this is important for healthcare providers to know is because if people have these blood clots, they have to be treated with specific medications. A commonly used medication that would be used to treat blood clots is Heparin. Heparin should not be used for this potentially vaccine induced type of blood clot.”
“What the CDC did today was knowing that the same type of pathway has happened in Europe with their AstraZeneca vaccine. The AstraZeneca vaccine and the J&J vaccine are different, but they are very similar in the fact that they use an adenovirus.”
A CDC subgroup is expected to hold an emergency meeting Wednesday regarding these uncommon reactions. The meeting will take place and can be viewed by the public online.