The Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Covid vaccine has been approved for use in the U.K.. Like the vaccine made by AstraZeneca, J&J’s vaccine has been linked to blood clotting, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) finding earlier this month that there is a “plausible causal association” between the two. Sky News has more on the use of the vaccine in the U.K..
The vaccine, developed by the company’s pharmaceutical arm Janssen, has been shown to be 67% effective overall at preventing moderate to severe Covid, with some studies suggesting it also offers complete protection from admission to hospital and death.
In a statement, Health Secretary Matt Hancock described the approval as “a further boost to the U.K.’s hugely successful vaccination programme, which has already saved over 13,000 lives”…
The U.K. has ordered 20 million doses of the vaccine, which England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, has previously said could be used for hard-to-reach groups of people, where recalling them for a second jab is not always successful [because only one dose is required].
The [Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency] is thought to have held back from early approval of the vaccine after concerns were raised in the U.S. about a link to extremely rare blood clots.
The clots are similar to those seen in a very small proportion of people having the AstraZeneca jab.
In April, the use of the shot was suspended in the U.S. while the US CDC investigated eight “serious” cases of rare blood clots associated with low blood platelets, among the seven million people who had been vaccinated.
One person died.
The vaccine’s rollout was resumed after a week – after concerns had been assuaged – but the European Medicines Agency recommended a warning about unusual blood clots with low blood platelet count should be added to the product information for the vaccine.
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