Most stressed that federal regulators were right to be cautious despite the long odds of serious side effects.
On Tuesday, the FDA and CDC recommended pausing the administration of the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine while the agencies investigate an extremely rare possible side effect. Six women in the U.S. who received the J&J vaccine — all between the ages of 18 and 28 — experienced a blood- clotting disorder called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis in the days after getting their shots, and one has died. It’s not yet clear if the clots were related to the vaccine, though a similar disorder has occurred abroad among some recipients of the AstraZeneca COVID vaccine, which uses the same adenovirus-vector technology as Johnson & Johnson’s. As scientists continue to research the cases to determine if and how they may be related to the shot, U.S. regulators’ sudden decision to pause J&J’s distribution has prompted widespread reaction from across the COVID-expert community. Below is an overview of what they are saying. James Hamblin, a doctor and journalist who is a colleague of Wu’s, said in a tweet on Tuesday, “Pausing vaccination to look into a possible one in a million side effect may scare people. It could just as easily be seen as reassuring, proof that close attention is being paid to, and extremely high priority put on, vaccine safety.” As FDA and CDC officials stressed on Tuesday, one critical reason for the move is to alert doctors to the potential problem and make sure they know how to treat it — particularly since one of the standard treatments for blood clots may, in the case of this specific disorder, make it far worse. New York City doctor Craig Spencer underlined that point in a Twitter thread on Tuesday night with a real-world example: I was in the ER today. One of the first patients I saw after getting briefed on the J&J decision was a young woman in her 30s. She got the J&J vaccine a week ago. She had symptoms that overlap with those we were told to look out for. Today’s announcement changed my differential diagnosis & impacted my clinical management. That’s exactly what it was meant to do. It’s also how we’ll get the data we need. He added that the regulators’ decision to pause the J&J vaccine “should drastically improve our faith in the public health institutions tasked with protecting us. With how they had been politicized and over-ruled by the previous admin, this is critical. And that’s exactly why I think today’s decision was the right one.
