The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) backed the recommendation of its advisory panel to designate the mRNA-based Covid-19 vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech the “preferred” vaccination option, citing newly-released data on the incidence of a severe but rare blood clot disorder in the adenovirus-based jab from Johnson & Johnson.
The drug behemoth has insisted the benefits of its jab outweigh the risk of blood clots, and a company representative argued that while the maximum protection delivered by the vaccine comes later than that delivered by the mRNA jabs, it also lasts longer.
Noting that the recommendation to shun Johnson & Johnson jab is based on “the latest evidence of vaccine effectiveness, vaccine safety and rare adverse events,” CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky nonetheless stated that “receiving any vaccine is better than being unvaccinated.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had ordered a hold on the J&J shots in April, after six women developed a rare blood clotting disorder within two weeks of receiving the jab. The CDC later revealed nine more women had developed such clots, even while insisting that the chances of developing the disorder were “extremely low.” By the end of April when the CDC recommended resuming the use of the jab, three of the women had died and seven were hospitalized.
There have been concerns over possible side effects from other vaccines as well. A trove of Pfizer documents obtained via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the FDA this month revealed that the mRNA-based vaccine manufacturer recorded nearly 160,000 adverse reactions in the first months of the vaccine’s rollout. This included thousands of nervous system disorders and a range of different autoimmune conditions and other ailments such as epilepsy, heart failure and strokes. Over 1,200 reactions were fatal, the data suggested.
Doctors demanding further transparency on the part of the drug manufacturer may be out of luck, as the FDA recently argued that it might take them up until 2096 to process and release some 451,000 pages of files studied in the vaccine’s approval.
While the latest Omicron variant is said to be more resistant to the vaccines currently in use than previous variants, scientists believe the variant is milder than its predecessors. The White House’s top medical adviser Anthony Fauci has recently poured cold water on the speculations that the new variant would render the existing vaccines ineffective, saying that an Omicron-specific booster might be excessive.
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