EU Agency Says Benefits of J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Outweigh Risks but Calls for Blood-Clot Warning -- Update
April 20 2021 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
By Eric Sylvers
Europe's health agency said a warning should be added to the
product information of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine
that unusual blood clots are a very rare possible side effect, but
that the benefits of taking the shot outweigh the risks.
The European Medicines Agency said on Tuesday that it had looked
at data from the U.S., where there have been eight reported cases
of people suffering from rare blood clots coupled with a low level
of platelets after they received the J&J vaccine. One of those
people died. More than seven million people have received the
vaccine in the U.S.
Last week, U.S. health authorities recommended pausing the
rollout out of the vaccine. They had considered only issuing a
warning, but decided a pause would help make doctors aware of how
to treat the rare condition. J&J then followed with the
decision to pre-emptively pause the rollout in Europe, which had
just begun.
The eight cases in the U.S. were similar to those that have
occurred with the AstraZeneca PLC vaccine in Europe, something that
EMA said it took into consideration in making its recommendation.
The two vaccines use similar technology.
In the U.K., where 20.6 million people had received at least one
dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine by April 5, there has been about
one case of the unusual clotting with low platelets for every
200,000 shots given. There have been 22 deaths out of 99 cases. The
majority of cases and deaths have been in women under 60 years old,
prompting many countries to restrict the use of the vaccine to
older recipients.
Write to Eric Sylvers at eric.sylvers@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 20, 2021 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
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