A week after Congressman Dusty Johnson set a good example by GETTING HIS CORONAVIRUS SHOT!!!, the FDA and CDC are recommending we hold off on administering any more of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the brand Congressman Johnson got, while they investigate the possibility that the Johnson & Johnson product may cause blood clots:
As of April 12, more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen ) vaccine have been administered in the U.S. 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.
CDC will convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) on Wednesday to further review these cases and assess their potential significance. FDA will review that analysis as it also investigates these cases. Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution. This is important, in part, to ensure that the health care 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 [CDC and FDA, joint statement, 2021.04.13].
CVST is the same blood-clotting condition that has appeared in rare cases among European patients receiving the Astra-Zeneca vaccine.
One woman has died post-J&J-vaccine from CVST and another is in critical condition, but McMaster University Department of Medicine chair Dr. Mark Crowther says that doctors can identify and treat this condition pretty quickly:
The key here is unrelenting pain, said Dr. Mark Crowther, a member of the American Society of Hematology who is an expert in CVST.
“Many people get headaches, many people have abdominal pain but (CVST) is sustained, it is very severe and it gets worse. It’s not pain that gets better by itself,” said Crowther, who chairs the department of medicine at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada.
While CVST is not a stroke, people can experience strokelike difficulty speaking or moving an arm or leg, he added.
“If patients get any of that kind of stuff, they should seek medical attention immediately. It’s not the kind of thing that you wait until your physician’s office opens on Monday before you deal with it,” Crowther said.
The CDC is working on “aggressive” outreach to clinicians so they are aware of the possible risks and how to identify symptoms, Schuchat said in the briefing.
“Physicians would not see very many of these in their career, so they may not recognize it as quickly,” Crowther said. “We have some highly effective treatments for this so the problem is getting physicians to recognize this extraordinarily rare problem and treat it appropriately” [Sandee LaMotte, “If You’ve Recently Had the J&J Vaccine, Watch for These Rare Symptoms, CDC Says,” CNN, 2021.04.14].
Dusty seems to be feeling o.k.. Just the day before the FDA/CDC announcement, he was out telling us all to GET OUR SHOTS!!! and calling out the knuckleheads who’ve been denying science:
Nearly a week after getting his vaccine, Johnson told KELOLAND News people should continue to look into the science and analyze the data about the vaccines themselves.
Johnson said Sanford Health officials told him last week, there’s only been 22 reactions to more than 116,000 shots given.
“That shows how safe this vaccine is,” Johnson said. “Showing people the facts, that’s always a way to increase confidence.”
…Johnson said recent history shows Americans are moving backwards in understanding science.
“With regard to the vaccine, we’ve probably regressed in our knowledge base if anything,” Johnson said. “Just 10 years ago it was acknowledged that vaccines were among the greatest healthcare, medical breakthroughs in the history of humankind.”
Johnson pointed out smallpox, serious infectious disease, was eliminated because it was a vaccine people around the world were willing to take.
“We all want to get back to normal. That happens most quickly when people are willing to be part of a team and get the vaccine,” Johnson said [Eric Mayer, “‘Whether You Trust Donald Trump, or Joe Biden, or Kristi Noem, or Dusty Johnson, We’ve All Gotten the Vaccine’,” KELO-TV, 2021.04.12].
Even with this new data about CVST as a possible side effect of the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine, Congressman Johnson’s scientific view still supports GETTING YOUR SHOTS!!! By one reporter’s calculations, going out and getting coronavirus poses far more mortal danger than going out and getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. In Congressman Johnson and I’s age group, the risk of death from J&J-induced blood clots is 2,143 times greater than the risk that we’d die from the virus the vaccine prevents.
And according to the Gun Violence Archive, 17 Americans died of gunshots yesterday. Since February 27, the day the FDA issued emergency use authorization for the now-paused Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the GVA has documented 2,216 deaths by guns in America.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has a scientifically proven record of stopping death from coronavirus. Yet even with that proven benefit, it is reasonable that we hold off on using the vaccine further until scientists have a chance to investigate these CVST cases and determine if we are subjecting Americans to an unnecessary risk. It is also reasonable that, during this pause, we ask Pfizer and Moderna to crank up their production of vaccines and that we ask each other to throttle back our public activities and prevent further spread of coronavirus while we wait for vaccination availability and administration to bounce back.
But if six cases of a disease and one death from the use of a medical product for self-defense justify government intervention and investigation, maybe 2,216 firearm deaths justify a pause in the distribution of firearms.
Related Public Health Action: Sanford Health is now offering coronavirus shots on a walk-in basis at its Imagenetics building on West 22nd, on the south side of the main hospital campus in Sioux Falls, on Wednesday (today!) and Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. They’ll schedule more walk-in vaccine times in coming weeks, depending on how many doses they get. Avera Health is also giving walk-ins first-dose coronavirus vaccine at its clinic at 3901 W. 59th Street Monday through Thursday, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. GET YOUR SHOTS!!! (and watch for clots!)
I got the JnJ 3wks ago. I’d like to know what dates these 6 got their shots and how many overall shots were administered at those times. The 6 out of 6.85 million is surely not the end of this story unless these 6 are truly background noise, but I doubt it.
Because they have been giving JnJ to a lot of college age girls within the last week, my hunch is that this pause is to both prep doctors on how to treat these clots and see how many more clots happen over the course of the next couple of weeks.
Data is beautiful.
The FDA & CDC overreacted. A better reaction would be to not issue the JnJ vaccine to young women, and perhaps others with known blood health issues.
Birth control pills are more dangerous than the vaccine.
Get the shot.
https://www.reddit.com/r/dataisbeautiful/comments/mqkfjx/oc_should_you_be_too_worried_after_taking_the_jj/
“In Congressman Johnson and I’s age group, the risk of death from J&J-induced blood clots is 2,143 times greater than the risk that we’d die from the virus the vaccine prevents.”
Is this worded incorrectly?
Cody, Yes, it is flipped the wrong way according to the link provided. Getting Covid and dying is 2,143 times greater than the blood clot from J & J vaccine in that group.
John is spot on with regards to safety concerns. My hypothesis is that there’s an unforseen interaction between a birth control or hormonal treatment that causes unfortunate but rare interactions with the J&J vaccine, since these appear to be occurring in pre-menopausal women. More evidence of clotting could quickly disprove that theory.
Cory, I doubt I’ll ever dissuade you from your fear of guns, but I’ll mention that you’re really grasping at straws here. More people die from literally anything else than the J&J vaccine. The reason there’s a pause is because the vaccine was given an emergency authorization, and there’s got to be stricter scrutiny in case something that wasn’t caught during the truncated trials come to light. Moreover, we need to insulate against the number of people who are hesitant to get ANY vaccine latching onto any side effects as a reason not to get a dose.
By your logic, we should “pause” everything else because people die from [insert activity/object here].
Hydroxychloroquine , though. It’s still MAGA Tonic on talk radio and rural revivals. Know where we can get us some?
Wayne, I don’t see Cory as saying that all activities that cause any potential fatalities ought to be ended (like Zevon wrote: “Life’ll kill ya.”). Instead we as a nation ought to put a public health focus on the issue of guns, gun violence, and gun death. In the view of a public health issue, the fatality rate of gun policy warrants a serious examination of its value.
The pandemic was a hoax.
Now, we’re just watching the emperor take a victory lap in the buff.
It’s a fascinating parade, actually.
I hear the ender is Chinese jack boots.
John
John Dale’s really smart.
If you don’t believe it, just ask him.