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WHY ARE J&J VACCINES BEING PAUSED?
• On Tuesday, April 13th, the FDA/CDC announced a rare but serious side effect including serious brain
blood clots (CVST) combined with low platelet counts in six patients who received J&J vaccines.
• All patients are women under 50 years of age.
• Vaccines are being paused out of an abundance of caution.
WHAT IS WA STATE DOING ABOUT J&J VACCINES?
• The Washington State Department of Health will pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson (J & J) vaccine
statewide starting immediately (4/13/21), following the guidance of the FDA/CDC.
• Use of that vaccine will be put on hold until we receive further recommendations from our federal
partners about how best to move forward.
• Safety is the highest priority when it comes to all COVID-19 vaccines.
• About 160,000 doses of J & J vaccine have been administered in Washington so far, out of more than
four million doses total.
• At this time, we are not aware that any of the six patients who experienced these blood clots were
Washington residents.
WILL J&J CAUSE ME TO HAVE A BLOOD CLOT?
• While adverse events such as blood clots are very unfortunate, it is important to remember that out of
6.8 million J & J vaccines administered nationwide, only six people are known to have experienced this side
effect.
• That is a fraction of a percent, which shows us that this side effect, while serious, is extremely rare.
• For comparison:
o 1 in 366 people will have a car accident during a 1000 mile trip (Source: Dr. Lindquist in media
availability on 4/13)
o 1 in 10,000 people will have side effects to popular antibiotics (Source: Dr. Lindquist in media
availability on 4/13)
o Fewer than 1 in 1 million people will develop a blood clot from J&J vaccine.
WHAT HAPPENS IF I RECEIVED THE J&J VACCINE?
• People who have received the J&J vaccine who develop severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or
shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination should contact their health care provider.
• Health care providers are asked to report adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting
System at https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html.
WHAT PEOPLE WITH J&J APPOINTMENTS SHOULD DO:
• If you have an appointment with a clinic that was scheduling the J&J vaccine, those clinics will be putting
information out on their own channels to advise you of next steps.
• DOH was already seeing low dose allocation of J&J vaccine.o Anticipated only 13k of 370k expected doses to be J&J.
o J&J is only 6% of the total vaccine received by Washington State.
• Because J&J was already in limited supply, pausing J&J vaccines should have minimal effect.
• We acknowledge that any cancelations or rescheduling due to the pause is an inconvenience and
disruption, but it’s the right thing to do until we get more information on the vaccine.
- IF YOU THINK YOU ARE HAVING SIDE EFFECTS:
- • Contact your health care provider if you are having the following symptoms within 3 weeks of receiving
- vaccine:
- Severe headache
- Abdominal pain
- Leg Pain
- Shortness of breath
WHAT IS CAUSING THE BLOOD CLOTS
• No definitive cause has been identified yet, but the FDA says that a that a probable cause is a rare
immune response generated by an individual after receiving the vaccine.
• Dr. Scott Lindquist, Acting State Health Officer, says that the 6 reported blood clots with J&J are
associated with vaccine, however they not caused by the vaccine.
OVERALL J&J DATA (From Michele Roberts, as of 4/12/21)
• 320,000 J&J delivered in WA (state and federal allocations)
– 225,000 of that is from our state allocation
• As of April 11, 2021: 160,000 administered and reported to the IIS as of 4/11
• 650 facilities have administered or been allocated J&J vaccine in WA
• These numbers will continue to change as more administration data comes in from last few days and
doses continued to be delivered.
WHAT HAPPENS TO UNDELIVERED J&J DOSES?
• DOH is directing providers to hold onto undelivered doses for now.
WHAT WE’RE TELLING PROVIDERS TO DO
• Discontinue all use of J&J until further review