On Tuesday’s “PBS NewsHour,” CDC Principal Deputy Director Dr. Anne Schuchat said that the agency recommended pausing the administration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine so the health community can figure out how to “recognize, diagnose, and manage” the clotting cases, “urge more reporting” of clots, and so they could get advice from the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Schuchat said, “We’ve recommended a pause for three reasons: Because we wanted to give the healthcare community time to learn how to recognize, diagnose, and manage this condition. Because if you treat this condition with the usual treatment for clotting, it can get worse. So, that was a critical reason to get the word out. The second one was to urge more reporting, so we could get a better understanding of the pattern and whether this is limited to women, certain ages, or just how frequent it is. And then the third reason for the pause was to give time for our Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, our group of independent scientific experts, to review the data carefully and give us their advice. And that meeting will be happening tomorrow.”
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