City Pauses Administering Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

A city official on Tuesday told Pasadena Now that the city will stop administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as part of a nationwide pause on the heels of reports of serious blood clots by six women who received that vaccine. 

“We have a few hundred doses of J&J on hand,” said Pasadena Public Information Officer Lisa Derderian. “Supply was expected to decrease in the next few weeks anyway because of the decrease nationally. At the direction of the state, and out of an abundance of caution, we’ll pause.”

Derderian said the city was using the Moderna vaccine at a vaccination event scheduled for Pasadena City College on Tuesday.

Huntington Hospital Infectious disease expert Dr. Kimberly Shriner said blood clots appear to be “an extremely rare side effect” but also said “it is prudent for J and J to pause and review the data very carefully.”

“As this rare event seems to occur in younger, premenopausal women, there may be some adjustments made in how this vaccine is used.  At this time, the risk of experiencing this event after J and J vaccination is estimated at one in a million doses given.”

Shriner also pointed out that what is very clear by now is that the risk of clotting abnormalities, sickness and death associated with becoming infected COVID-19.

“So there is no question that the protective benefit of the vaccines far outweigh the very small risk of this event. Vaccination will protect you from this very infectious and very dangerous virus,” she said.

The vaccine was highly sought out because it is a one-shot vaccine compared to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which require two shots weeks apart.

L.A. County this week received an allocation of 323,470 doses of vaccine — including Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer and Moderna. That represents an overall drop of roughly 80,000 from last week, due to a major reduction in the supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

County health officials were anticipating supplies of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to increase again in the coming weeks — but now new questions could change plans.

According to a joint statement from the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the federal government is recommending an immediate pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine nationwide after the six U.S. recipients — all women between the ages of 18 and 48 — developed serious blood clots within two weeks of getting vaccinated.

One woman died and a second woman in Nebraska was hospitalized in critical condition.

“We are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” said Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, and Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC.

“This is important, in part, to ensure that the healthcare provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events and can plan for proper recognition and management due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot,” the statement said.

The statement also emphasized that the adverse reactions to the J&J vaccine “appear to be extremely rare.”

“More than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) vaccine have been administered in the U.S.,” the statement said. “CDC and FDA are reviewing data involving six reported U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine.

“In these cases, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia). All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination. 

“Treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered. Usually, an anticoagulant drug called heparin is used to treat blood clots. In this setting, administration of heparin may be dangerous, and alternative treatments need to be given,” the statement said.

The CDC will convene a meeting of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess their potential significance.

“At present, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events” and the company’s vaccine, published reports quoted a Johnson & Johnson statement as saying.

“We continue to work closely with experts and regulators to assess the data and support the open communication of this information to healthcare professionals and the public,” the statement added.