NYC will give Pfizer vaccine instead of J&J following blood clot reports

New York officials have paused the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following reports of blood clotting in a small number of recipients. Photo via Alachua County/Flickr

By Rachel Vick

New Yorkers scheduled to receive the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine will instead get jabbed with a Pfizer brand dose, New York’s Health commissioner said Tuesday.

Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker said the state will stop administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine following reports of blood clotting in a handful of recipients.

Six of the nearly 7 million people who received a Johnson & Johnson dose have experienced blood clots, prompting the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to pull the shot from federal vaccine sites. The agencies also recommended states cease administering the doses until more is known about the clotting response.

Zucker said the state made the decision “out of an abundance of caution.”

So far, the city has distributed 234,000 doses of Johnson & Johnson but there have been no reported cases of clotting, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.

The CDC will meet Wednesday to evaluate the cases and larger significance and the FDA will review their analysis. 

“Until that process is complete, we are recommending this pause,” the FDA tweeted. “This is important to ensure that the health care provider community is aware of the potential for these adverse events and can plan due to the unique treatment required with this type of blood clot.”

All six of the people who experienced clotting were women between ages 18 and 45, and each showed symptoms of 6 to 13 days after being vaccinated. They developed cerebral venous sinus thrombosis clots with low platelets, which made the standard treatment dangerous, according to the FDA.