In recent months, the term “blood clots” has become associated with the AstraZeneca Covid vaccine, but Europe’s medicines regulator is now reviewing possible links between this rare condition and the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) jab. Sky News has the story.
Europe’s drugs regulator is reviewing possible links between blood clots and J&J’s coronavirus vaccine.
The move comes after four serious cases of rare clots with low platelets were reported after the Covid jab, one of which was fatal, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The J&J (also known as Janssen) vaccine, which has proved 67% effective in preventing infection and completely effective at preventing hospital admissions and death from Covid during trials, is currently only used in the US, under an emergency use authorisation.
The jab was authorised in the EU last month but has not started to be rolled out to members states yet, although this is expected in the next few weeks.
The vaccine stands out from the others being used because only one shot is needed, rather than two.
30 million doses have been ordered by the UK Government, but it has yet to be approved for use by the country’s regulator. Nearly five million people have received the vaccine in the US. Responding to reports of its jab being investigated by the EMA, J&J said it was working with regulators to assess the relevant information.
At present, no clear causal relationship has been established between these rare events and the Janssen Covid vaccine.
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