U.S. CDC Probes Johnson & Johnson over new death and hospitalization on the use of its COVID-19 vaccine

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is probing Johnson & Johnson for the death of an Oregon woman and hospitalization of a patient in Texas over the use of its COVID-19 vaccines, state officials said.

Advisers to the CDC met on Friday to deliberate whether or not it was safe to resume administering the injections of the single-dose COVID-19 vaccines. Some health officials anticipate positive feedback so that the vaccinations can continue. A senior health official with the Texas health agency Imelda Garcia told a news outlet that the reports do not necessarily mean that the death was caused by vaccines.

Oregon was notified about the incident on Tuesday, while Texas was notified on Wednesday, both by the CDC. The Oregon woman was in her 50s and had reportedly received the vaccination before the pause order was issued, the Oregon health authority said in a statement which stated that she developed “a rare but serious clot within two weeks following vaccination.”

The other person in Texas got developed symptoms of blood clots ad hospitalized after receiving J&J’s vaccine. Six others recently suffered from similar symptoms after taking the single-dose shots in the U.S., according to a Texas health agency spokesperson. They were all women between the ages of 18 to 48 – all six developed the illness between 1 to 3 weeks of receiving the vaccine.

According to the New York Times, officials of the CDC Advisory Committee were likely to lift the pause if they find only a small number of clotting cases besides the original six that prompted the probe. A report by the committee stated that the Food and Drugs administration may consider attaching a warning to the vaccine’s label to inform health practitioners and the entire public about the rare side effects.

The United States health agencies then recommended a pause in the administering of J&J vaccines over the rare cases of blood clots, out of about 7 million people who have received the shot.

The U.S. CDC isn’t the only agency investigating J&J COVID-19 vaccines. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) on Tuesday said it may have found a “possible link” between the vaccines and the rare blood clotting issues among adults who received J&J’s vaccine shots. The agency added that the benefits outweighed the risks associated with the shots. It said it is recommending that the J&J vaccine include a warning about the rare, yet possible side effects.