(Image source from: ndtv.com)

The Federal Health Officials of USA announced that they wanted to pause the usage of the vaccine of Johnson & Johnson because of the blood clots. This would disrupt the ongoing mass vaccination drive for coronavirus in the country. USA is also badly shattered because of the second wave of coronavirus and is slowly recovering because of the ongoing vaccination drive in the country. The Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a statement which said "Vaccine safety is a top priority for the federal government, and we take all reports of health problems following COVID-19 vaccination very seriously". The states of Ohio and New York are the first to announce the pause for Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.

As per the information till April 12th, more than 6.8 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine are administered in the USA. FDA and CDC are currently reviewing the reported blood clot cases in the country. They say that there is a rare and severe type of blood clot. All the six reported cases are among women and they are aged between 18 and 48. The symptoms occurred 6-13 days after taking the vaccination shot of Johnson & Johnson. One among them died and the other patient is critical as of now. CDC is in plans to initiate a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to review the cases. White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, Jeff Zients told that this pause would have an impact on the vaccination drive and the availability. It is heard that the vaccination of Johnson & Johnson is less than 5 percent of the recorded shots in USA till date.

By Siva Kumar