U.S. health authorities recommended a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson ’s Covid-19 vaccine in order to investigate rare but severe cases of blood clots.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced the move Tuesday, after finding that six women between the ages of 18 and 48 years who got the vaccine had developed blood clots.
A panel of outside experts will meet Wednesday to review the matter for the CDC, while the FDA will also conduct an investigation.
The FDA said it was recommending a pause in the use of the J&J vaccine “out of an abundance of caution.”
The halt comes at a dangerous time during the pandemic, as health authorities race to vaccinate as many people as possible before variants develop that can evade the shots. Among the biggest hurdles is overcoming hesitancy to get vaccinated.
