Hello,
I thought I would share this with you from the Unbiased Science Project:
An Important Update on the Johnson & Johnson Vaccine
More than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson and Johnson (Janssen) vaccine have been administered in the US. Six cases of a type of blood clot, cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) have been reported. As a result, the CDC and FDA are temporarily pausing the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine across the country in order to review data tomorrow, April 14th.
It’s important to note that so far, this risk of developing a blood clot after receiving the J&J vaccine is 0.000088%.
Each of these instances were observed in women between the ages 18 and 48, and symptoms developed between 6 and 13 days after vaccination. We do not yet know about additional confounding factors such as other medical conditions, medication history, etc. That is what the review will dissect.
But, how does this risk compare to other incidences of blood clotting?
In the general public, the risk of developing blood clots (including DVT, VTE, and others) is about 0.1%, with 300,000-500,000 blood clotting events reported annually in the US (population 351 million).
The risk of developing clots as a result of COVID-19 ITSELF is quite high: it can be up to 30% particularly for those who are hospitalized in the ICU, but can also be up to 8% for those who have moderate cases of COVID-19 requiring hospitalization.
Even amongst people who take hormonal birth control, the risk of developing blood clots ranges between 0.3% to 1%.
What does this tell us?
The risk of CVST as a result of the J&J vaccine is EXTREMELY small. It is an exceedingly rare occurrence, and as of now, there is no definitive causal relationship. These clots are rarer than the general incidence of clots amongst the general population, and are orders of magnitude less rare than the clotting complications of COVID-19.
If you have received your J&J vaccine, there is no reason to worry. Regulatory review is there for a reason, and we will continue to update as things evolve.
Note: this rare occurrence of CVST has NOT occurred in response to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. This has been reported for the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is still being administered globally after review determined the benefits outweighed the extremely small risk.
Sources:
(1)
https://www.fda.gov/.../joint-cdc-and-fda-statement... (2)
https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf... (3)
https://www.ema.europa.eu/.../covid-19-vaccine... (4)
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/.../cerebral-venous-sinus... (5)
https://health.clevelandclinic.org/yes-your-birth.../ (6)
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16966543/
