{"id":738,"date":"2021-04-14T15:36:58","date_gmt":"2021-04-14T19:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/?p=738"},"modified":"2021-04-22T15:55:55","modified_gmt":"2021-04-22T19:55:55","slug":"webmd-ratzan-comments-in-article-on-cdc-panel-pause-of-jj-covid-vaccine-to-remain-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/webmd-ratzan-comments-in-article-on-cdc-panel-pause-of-jj-covid-vaccine-to-remain-for-now\/","title":{"rendered":"WebMD: Ratzan Comments in Article on “CDC Panel: Pause of J&J COVID Vaccine to Remain for Now”"},"content":{"rendered":"
This article was originally published on April 14, 2021 on WebMD.com, titled “CDC Panel: Pause of J&J COVID Vaccine to Remain for Now” and authored by Marcia Frellick.<\/h5>\n
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April 14, 2021 \u2013 The recommended pause in use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19\u00a0vaccine<\/a>\u00a0will last at least another week after a CDC advisory committee on Wednesday decided not to take action.<\/p>\n

The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices decided there was not adequate information to change again recommend use of the Johnson & Johnson\u00a0vaccine<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The committee\u2019s decision comes the day after the CDC and FDA recommended that J&J injections be paused after reports of rare, but serious types of\u00a0blood clots<\/a>\u00a0in six patients among the 6.8 million people who had received the J&J vaccine in the United States.<\/p>\n

A member of the committee, Beth Bell, MD, said, \u201cI do not want to be sending a message that there is some huge concern here on a different order of magnitude than any other\u00a0vaccine<\/a> safety signals that we evaluate. And I don\u2019t want to send a message that there is something fundamentally wrong with the vaccine because that also I don\u2019t agree with.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the end of the 4-hour meeting, ACIP members decided to call a meeting in 1 or 2 weeks and evaluate more safety data, specifically reports of people who have received the J&J vaccine in the past 2 weeks.<\/p>\n

Some, however, pointed out that delaying a decision could have substantial consequences as well in terms of unused vaccine doses and public confidence.<\/p>\n

Committee member Camiile Kotton, MD, described the pause as a \u201cdevastating.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cPutting this vaccine on pause for those of us that are frontline health care workers has really been devastating,\u201d she said. \u201cI agree in general that we don\u2019t have enough data to make a decision at this time but we were planning on using this vaccine in the state of Massachusetts for people who were homebound and otherwise not able to get a vaccine. We were planning on using it for our vulnerable inpatient population often with many comorbidities and at high risk for disease but haven\u2019t been able to get vaccinated otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pausing the one-and-done vaccine that doesn\u2019t have the significant refrigeration requirements of the others \u201cis a significant loss,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\n

What is Known, Not Known<\/h2>\n
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Sara Oliver, MD, who leads the COVID-19 Vaccines ACIP Work Group, summarized what is known and unknown about the\u00a0blood clots<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among the six cases of cerebral venous\u00a0sinus<\/a>\u00a0thrombosis (CVST) reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) after the J&J shot, all were women 18-48 years of age and all developed the clots 6 to 13 days after receiving the vaccine.<\/p>\n

No cases of these clots have been reported from either the Pfizer or Moderna shots, she noted.<\/p>\n

In the U.S., the two mRNA vaccine alternatives — the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines — are available \u201cand based on current projections supply of both vaccines are expected to be relatively stable in the near future,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

She said 14 million doses of Pfizer and Moderna are expected each week in the U.S. and J&J vaccines makes up less than 5% of vaccines administered in the country.<\/p>\n

Approximately 13 million J & J doses are available to order or are already at administration sites, she said.<\/p>\n

But much more is unknown, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere may be more cases identified in the coming days to weeks,\u201d Oliver said, referring back to the average time from vaccination to symptom onset.<\/p>\n

Scott Ratzan, MD<\/strong>, editor-in-chief of the\u00a0Journal of Health Communication: International Perspectives<\/em>\u00a0and executive director of\u00a0Business Partners to CONVINCE (BP2C)<\/a>, a global network of employers that promotes COVID-19 vaccination among employees, suppliers, and customers, applauded ACIPs delay on making a decision.<\/p>\n

Ratzan, who watched the deliberations online, told\u00a0Medscape<\/u>, the decision \u201cshows an admirable abundance of caution in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately,\u201d he said, \u201cthe pause also worsens the existing and pervasive vaccine hesitancy issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need a rational strategy regarding who should or should not get the J&J\/Janssen vaccine since these rare adverse events appear to affect a particular group of people, females aged 18-48. It is essential that we build vaccine confidence and retain the option of using this vaccine for people who are not in this risk group.\u201d<\/p>\n

He pointed out there are no safety red flags with the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n

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\u201cWe should feel reassured about the process of ensuring vaccine safety as the FDA and CDC have quickly addressed risk and shared the data transparently of the J&J vaccine and taken appropriate action,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

ACIP\u2019s Executive Secretary, Amanda Cohn, MD, said the date for the next meeting would be set by Friday.<\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This article was originally published on April 14, 2021 on WebMD.com, titled “CDC Panel: Pause of J&J COVID Vaccine to Remain for Now” and authored by Marcia Frellick. April 14, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":740,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesspartners2convince.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}