Sheldon, Iowa — On Tuesday, the Iowa Department of Public Health, along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control called for a hold on administration of the COVID-19 vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson. Dr. Ryan Becker of Sanford Sheldon tells us why.
(As above) “The CDC and the FDA came out and said that, out of an abundance of caution, they were going to hold on giving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because they had six women from across the country that had developed this kind of unique, rare type of clot called a cerebral veinous sinus thrombosis, or CVST. And I believe one of the women may have even passed away, as well.”
Dr. Becker says there’s no need to panic if you have already received the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine. He says the clots have been VERY rare.
(As above) “Out of the six-point-eight MILLION doses across the country that have been given, only six cases so far have been identified, so it’s very rare. I know I’ve had a couple of patients message me, just concerned that they have had it…the Johnson & Johnson vaccine…and what should they do now? Reassurance is all we can do right now, and of course looking for any sort of signs or symptoms of this, which would be dizziness, or light-headedness, or abnormal headaches. Even shortness of breath, abdominal pain or leg swelling, when it comes to clots in the legs and the lungs, (but) it’s still very rare when it comes to that.”
Becker advises what to do if you have an upcoming appointment scheduled to receive the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
(As above) “So the course of action is to communicate with…whether it be Sanford Sheldon Clinic, or over at O’Brien Public Health…give them a call. The phone number for O’Brien would be 957-0105…again it would be 957-0105 and then the clinic here at 324-5356. When you give us a call just let us know that you were on the list when it comes to Johnson & Johnson and then, if you’d like, we can transition you over to Moderna…because I know that, even here at the clinic, we do have Moderna doses available and the same thing with Public Health, too. So if you want the vaccine…a vaccine…then you should still be able to get it, when it comes to getting that scheduled out.”
He says if you’re scheduled and would prefer to wait for the Johnson & Johnson vaccinations to resume, you should inform Public Health of the clinic of that when you call.
Dr. Becker reiterated that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is the only one put on hold, and that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are still available.
(As above) “Moderna and Pfizer, the risk of adverse events is extremely low from those. Of course, there are potential side-effects from that, whether it be fever, or chills, or weakness, nausea, vomiting, I mean some of your common even vaccine-type side-effects, some of which I even had after my second dose of Moderna. But there are a great deal of patients who don’t even have side-effects when it comes to that.”
He says that, as we head into the warm weather months, we need to continue to be safe and respect the illnesses, while still enjoying life.
