The National Immunization Council of Canada (NACI) is recommending the Johnson & Johnson vaccine for people 30 years of age and older, while also cautioning about the risk of blood clots associated with this vaccine. Health Canada approved the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in March and added the risk of blood clots to its instructions for use last week.
Dr. Shelley Deeks, vice-chair of the committee, said at a news conference Monday that the committee, after carefully weighing the data available, concluded that Canadians aged 30 and older could get the vaccine if they wanted to get it earlier.
That’s a prudent recommendation. The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, like the AstraZeneca vaccine, is a viral vector vaccine, or inactivated vaccine. There have been 17 previous cases of blood clots among the approximately 80 million Americans who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The vaccine was briefly halted in the United States while an investigation was conducted.
The first dose of the AstraZeneca vaccine was administered to about 1.1 million people in Canada, triggering seven cases of blood clots, including the death of a 54-year-old Quebec woman.
The Canadian Immunization Council recommends the mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccine for pregnant women. Both Pfizer and Modena fall into this category.
The final decision on how Johnson & Johnson vaccines are used is made by the public health departments of each province.
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