Despite the relief that came when the distribution of vaccines began, recent news suggests that there may be a few lingering problems that we still need to focus our attention on. One of these issues comes from an EU review of the J&J vaccine discussing blood clots:
“The European Medicines Agency's safety committee has also been looking at how AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine is associated with very rare cases of unusual blood clots and said it was now reviewing reports of capillary leak syndrome in people given AstraZeneca's vaccine”.
Considering that I have my appointment for this exact vaccine in a few hours, although it likely won’t deter me from going, this is very concerning information to receive. For starters, the blood-clot issue was discovered through a series of four clotting cases with “three occurr[ing] in the United States during the rollout of J&J's vaccine from its Janssen unit” and one more during the trial period for the vaccine. Fortunately, these cases are “listed as very rare side effects” considering it only occurred 3 times out of the “nearly 5 million people in the United States [that] had received J&J's vaccine”. Similar to blood clots, capillary leak syndrome also only occurred in a few individuals who took the vaccine causing blood vessel swelling and dips in blood pressure. Like Blood clots, the connection between the virus and capillary leak syndrome is unknown and Ian Douglas, a professor of pharmacoepidemiology at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, stated "It’s too early to comment on the signal of capillary leak with the AZ vaccine, or clots with the Janssen vaccine”. Regardless, we hope that the cause of these problems is discovered and that their effect on people is reduced in the meantime.
While certain issues regarding the effectiveness of the vaccine have surfaced, another major problem is the distribution of the vaccine. In particular, “as many as 60 countries,” many of them being some of the world’s poorest, will not have access to vaccine deliveries until as late as this coming June. The reason being, COVAX, “the global initiative to provide vaccines to countries,” has had its progress halted after India recently decided to stop exporting vaccines that were meant to supply near a third of the world’s population. While doing so has had the direct effect of preventing people from receiving either their first or second dose, it has also had the dramatic effect of causing widespread unrest. Specifically, many feared that not receiving their second dose would leave them with a weak immune system and thus vulnerable to the virus. Furthermore, it has also caused many to seek guarantees about receiving the second dose after being forced to wait. These uncertainties could obviously have a major effect on many people in these developing regions, but ultimately the UN has failed to respond. The UN ultimately claimed, “countries are “very keen” to get vaccines as soon as possible and insisted it hasn’t heard any complaints about the process” of vaccine distribution.
While the combination of all these faults is somewhat alarming, we can only hope that issues with the vaccine itself and its distribution fade as 2021 progresses. The issues occurring with blood clots and capillary leak syndrome are small in number and issues of distribution have only begun in the past few days leaving hope that these problems will just be short-term difficulties.
Really enjoyed that post. Saw a lot of news articles in India about how 79 people had died from the domestic vaccine, which caused widespread fear and low rates of people wanting to get their shots. What do you think the role of governments is in spreading a message of safety around vaccines?
Like Richard stated below, I also think it's all about the numbers. The fact that we've have such low numbers of issues with hundreds of millions being vaccinated should actually be celebrated. It's commendable you still received the vaccine that day though, I still haven't received mine, but should soon. I think the procedures being done to ensure the vaccines are safe and quality tested require issues like this to be taken seriously even though likely there isn't a huge issue.
I was just discussing the issue surrounding the J&J vaccine the other day as WASHU has been giving its students J&J vaccines and many were worried by the news of the blood clots. Personally, since the chances of getting the side effect have risen to 1/1,000,000, and only 2,000 people ages 18-29 have died in the US from COVID, I think the odds are probably equal or our age group is more susceptible to COVID. Hopefully these side effects do not lessen peoples confidence in the COVID vaccines as a whole and hopefully the capillary leaks and blood clots are related to something other than the J&J vaccine. In addition, I had never heard of COVAX so it was interesting…
Personally, I think the blood clotting issue has been massively overblown. The decision to pause use of these vaccines will be looked upon in the future as a mistake. It feels like as we near the finish line, our government’s are acting even more irrational than usual for some reason. I think that reason might actually be fear of anti-vaxxers latching onto this as some type of conspiracy. I’m incredibly disappointed with how this is playing out because I believe “an abundance of caution” does not outweigh ending the pandemic as quickly as possible, a goal that seems to have gone out the window by this point. As for vaccine distribution, I don’t understand why only these handful of specific…
I understand that the odds of blood clotting or CLS are incredibly slim, however, I must admit it definitely made me worried about some of my family members who received the J&J vaccine. From what I understood, the CDC was suggesting that they halt distribution of J&J for the time being. It makes me further question if the risks really are so slim. The lack of general knowledge and ambiguity of the positions of these global health organizations on the vaccines in question make it difficult for me to formulate my own view on the matter. I still have not received the vaccine, but I might have more reservations of accepting the J&J.