Pitt medical professor addresses the FDA & CDC suggested pause in use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine
A University of Pittsburgh professor of medicine says the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control's recommended pause in using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is part of the safety monitoring built into the system of the vaccine rollout.
"Out of an abundance of caution to allow the agency, the FDA, the opportunity to do further review," Dr. Sharon Riddle, a professor in Pitt's Department of Medicine Infectious Diseases Division said.
Pittsburgh's Action News 4 asked her advice for people who have just received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"I would say if you just received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the past couple of weeks, I think you can be reassured that these events that have occurred or have been observed have been extremely rare," Dr. Sharon Riddle, a University of Pittsburgh professor in the Department of Medicine infectious diseases division, told Pittsburgh's Action News 4.
She says there are specific symptoms you should know about that have been seen in those rare cases.
"If you have concerns, particularly severe headache, shortness of breath, abdominal pain perhaps, you should reach out to your provider and consider letting them know that you have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine very recently," Riddler said. "The events that have been reported have been extremely uncommon, on the order of one in a million recipients of the vaccine."
She said the pause "Will give the FDA the opportunity to obtain that additional information that will help them to make a determination of how likely they think it is these that events are related to the vaccine or, conversely, not related."
In the week ahead, scientists will weigh the evidence, including details of the six cases, the history of the patients, and comparison of the rate of incidence of such cases to those in the general public.
"The risk of acquiring COVID and getting sick and hospitalized is probably much greater than the risk of the vaccine. But we need to wait and see what additional information becomes available," Riddler said.
While the pause is underway, what about the shelf life of Johnson & Johnson vaccine already made but not currently being used?
"This vaccine is stable at refrigerated temperatures for long periods of time," Riddler said, suggesting the pause would not affect the usability of already-produced vaccine. "The only time that would occur is if vials had already been opened."