Pending final acceptance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Georgia Department of Public help will once again offer the J&J vaccine to those age 18 and older.
Today, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that the United States should resume J&J vaccinations. ACIP also said a warning should be added about the potential for the rare, but severe, blood clots. Women, especially those under the age of 50, should be warned of the increased risk of thrombosis and thrombocytopenia syndrome and they should be given the option to choose to receive another vaccine.
According to the Associated Press, the government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed the blood clot out of the nearly 8 million people nationwide who were vaccinated. Three of them died and seven remain hospitalized.
In Georgia, more than 124,000 doses of J&J vaccine had been safely administered when distribution was paused. There are an additional 211,000 doses currently in inventory in the state.
There is no timeline yet for when administration will begin again, but according to AP News, the FDA and CDC said that J&J’s one-and-done vaccine is critical in fighting the pandemic.
“Above all else, health and safety are at the forefront of our decisions,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “Our vaccine safety systems are working. We identified exceptionally rare events – out of millions of doses of the J&J shot and will continue to monitor them.”
More information about COVID-19 vaccines can be found on the DPH’s website.
AP contributed to this story.
