No new blood clotting cases reported to CDC over Johnson & Johnson vaccine

WASHINGTON — No new blood clotting cases have been definitively confirmed one week after initial reports of such cases led federal regulators to recommend that states temporarily stop administering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. That could change in the coming days, but the news may signal that the vaccine could be back in rotation within a matter of days.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Yahoo News on Monday that the agency’s database of vaccine-related medical complications, known as VAERS, “is constantly receiving reports from individuals and providers. CDC scientists have received a handful of adverse events reported in VAERS since the pause announced last week. At this time, no additional cases of the rare form of blood clots post-vaccination with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been confirmed.”

During a Monday morning briefing of the White House coronavirus response team, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky similarly alluded to what appears, thus far, to be the extreme rarity of the blood clotting issue, which has affected eight people in the United States, killing one. Close to 7 million people received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine before distribution was paused.

“Right now, we are encouraged that it hasn’t been an overwhelming number of cases,” Walensky said. The CDC spokesperson said that agency scientists will investigate reports submitted to the VAERS database in the coming days in order to determine whether the clotting issue is more prevalent than it appears to be. “If any additional cases are found in safety surveillance, data will be reported to ACIP at its Friday meeting,” the spokesperson said.