A committee of experts voted on a preference for the Moderna or Pfizer immunizations, citing the risk of blood clots linked to Johnson & Johnson’s product.
An expert panel to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday voted to recommend that Covid vaccines other than Johnson & Johnson’s should be preferred, citing increasing evidence that the company’s shots can trigger a rare blood clot disorder now linked to dozens of cases and at least nine deaths in the United States in the last year. The panel’s vote effectively discourages vaccine providers and adults from using Johnson & Johnson’s shot. New data showed that there was a higher risk for the blood clotting condition than previously known. The risk was greatest among women aged 30 to 49, estimated at 1 in 100,000 who had received the company’s shot. Still, some panelists expressed hope that Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine could still be used by people who did not have access to the more popular shots from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech, or wanted the shot despite knowing of the elevated side effect risk. The recommendation, which the C.D.C. must still decide whether to accept, is the latest setback for a vaccine which has largely fallen out of favor in the United States. The company’s vaccine has not fulfilled its early promise as a traditional, one-and-done format that would be easy to deploy in more isolated or rural communities, and among people skittish about receiving two doses. About 16 million people in the United States have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as their primary immunization, compared to 73 million fully immunized with Moderna’s vaccine and 114 million with the Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Among Americans who have received a booster, just 1.6 percent chose Johnson & Johnson. Earlier this week, the Food and Drug Administration issued updated guidance on the risks of the blood-clotting disorder linked to Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, but reiterated that the benefits outweighed its risks. Dozens of countries have authorized Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine and have been using it as part of their immunization campaigns. But while it remains in high demand in some parts of the world, it has lost popularity in many countries because of safety concerns and its relative lower effectiveness against Covid. Some governments have already moved to put restrictions on Johnson & Johnson’s shot because of the blood clotting risk. Finland, Denmark and Slovenia stopped using it, and several other nations have ranked it lower for use than Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines. Some countries also have advised doctors to counsel women under 50 of the potential risk. The C.D.C. panel’s recommendation lands in the midst of a global surge in virus cases driven by the Delta coronavirus variant and Omicron, the latest version that has already begun spreading quickly in Britain and the United States.
