COVID-19

JOHNSON & JOHNSON

PAUSE VACCINE FOR

EUROPE

By

Søren Nielsen

2021

Injections of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine came to a sudden halt across the United States after federal health agencies called for a pause following the emergence of a rare blood clotting. 

It will also be halted in the E.U.

Here’s what you need to know:

1: The Johnson & Johnson pause is another blow to Europe’s vaccine push.

2: The U.S. calls for a pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after rare clotting cases.

3: Here’s what we know so far about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and rare blood clots.

4: States swiftly pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine after a U.S. advisory.

5: States like New York are regrouping after halting use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine.

6: Johnson & Johnson delays its Covid-19 vaccine rollout in Europe.

7: Moderna reports its vaccine remains more than 90 percent effective after six months.

8: The virus is surging in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, while other regions are largely keeping it at bay.

The Johnson & Johnson pause is another blow to Europe’s vaccine push.

First it was AstraZeneca. Now Johnson & Johnson.

Last week, British regulators and the European Union’s medical agency said they had established a possible link between AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine and very rare, though sometimes fatal, blood clots.

The pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine in Europe over similar concerns threatens to hurt a sluggish rollout that was just starting to gain momentum, after months of short supplies and logistical problems.

Regulators have asked vaccine recipients and doctors to look out for certain symptoms, including severe and persistent headaches and tiny blood spots under the skin. 

Doctors’ groups have circulated guidance about how to treat the disorder.

According to a YouGov poll published last month, 61 percent of the French, 55 percent of Germans and 52 percent of Spaniards consider the AstraZeneca vaccine "unsafe."

Almost everywhere across the European Union, many are eager for alternatives. 

The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, based on a different technology, have not been associated with similar side effects.

Although all E.U. countries have been offered a chunk of each vaccine approved in the bloc so far — AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna and Pfizer — many opted to forgo parts of their share of more expensive or cumbersome vaccines like Pfizer and Moderna early on, instead favoring the AstraZeneca jab.

"In Britain or Eastern Europe, a big part of the campaigns are based on AstraZeneca," said Yves Van Laethem, a top epidemiologist who is Belgium’s Covid task force spokesman.

Wealthier bloc members like Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands can better compensate for the loss of confidence in AstraZeneca, because they acquired extra doses of other vaccines — especially Pfizer — through a secondary market after poorer E.U. nations gave theirs up.

But those countries — including Bulgaria, Croatia, Latvia and Slovakia — are likely to be less able to quickly offer alternatives.