Woman Suffers Rare Blood Clots After J&J COVID-19 Vaccine Jab; Seventh Case In US

As advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention prepare to meet Friday to decide on lifting the pause on the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, a Texas woman has been hospitalized with possible blood clots associated with the drugmaker's jab. This is the seventh such case reported in the U.S.

According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, this case is the state’s first reported hospitalization possibly linked to receiving the J&J jab. "The patient is an adult female who was hospitalized after receiving the J&J vaccine with symptoms that appear to be consistent with those that have been reported in a few other cases," State Health Director Imelda Garcia was cited as saying by Fox4News. The woman’s age, location, or condition was not known.

Johnson & Johnson is one of the U.S. government’s biggest bets in the battle to beat COVID-19, but the company has faced several setbacks, from serious safety and hygiene lapses to concerns that the shot may be linked to reports of rare blood clots among those who received it. The vaccine received FDA emergency authorization for distribution in February.

Federal officials had ordered a pause in the rollout of J&J’s single-dose vaccine last week after six cases of a rare blood-clotting disorder were reported among people who had received the shot. All six were women, between the ages of 18 and 48. One of them died after developing “a rare but serious blood clot” two weeks after vaccination, the Oregon Health Authority said in a statement.

So far, more than 6.8 million Americans have been administered the one-dose vaccination, AP reported.

According to Food and Drug Administration and CDC officials, one of the reasons for the pause was to communicate the risk to doctors on how to recognize the side effects and treat them.

The decision by CDC's advisory panel will have global implications since Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine is seen as a crucial tool for poorer nations and less accessible populations, as it only requires one dose and can be preserved at normal refrigerator temperatures, making it easy to transport, Reuters reported.

Though the US has ordered enough doses of vaccines from Pfizer Inc/BioNTech and Moderna Inc to inoculate all adults in the country, many senior experts, including top physician-scientist Anthony Fauci, have hinted they hope to resume use of the J&J vaccine.

Nearly 62,000 new coronavirus infections are being reported in the country, says the latest data. Although it's above the recent low point, the number of cases is still trending downward. CDC data shows that around 2.9 million jabs are being administered over the past week.