CDC Advisory Panel Studies Continued Hold On J & J Vaccine

A health advisory panel is considering what the federal government should do next with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday issued an emergency “pause” of use of the vaccine after it was discovered that six women had experienced adverse reactions after receiving the vaccine.

One of the women died and another is hospitalized in critical condition.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices met in an emergency session Wednesday, taking comments from a wide range of medical experts around the country.

Among the issues discussed was a possible plan to pause distribution of the vaccine long enough to inform doctors on how to better diagnose and treat potential side effects.

They include intense headaches, lower body pain, and shortness of breath.

After four hours of discussion, the group decided not to issue a recommendation yet.

Instead they plan to meet again in another week to ten days to get additional data before making a decision.

Until then, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine will not be administered to anyone.

While the feds work out a plan of action, Miami Valley public health authorities are taking the situation very seriously.

They support the temporary pause of the vaccine’s use.

“Even though this a rare event and they have stated that multiple times, this is a rare occurrence, its still worthy of a pause in the distribution of the vaccine to investigate it and find out more about this  issue, finding out what’s causing it and how it can be stopped and address it so that it doesn’t happen again,” said Laurie Fox of Greene County Public Health.

Authorities are urging people who notice symptoms after receiving the vaccine to contact their doctor and be sure to tell them that the vaccine was recently administered.

“We’re making sure if they get an unexplained headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath that they should seek medical treatment,” said Charles Patterson, Clark County Health Commissioner.

County health agencies continue to operate their vaccination clinics with either he Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

Cox Media Group