FAQ Category: Safety

It is important to remember that this is an extremely rare side effect—6 people out of an estimated 7 million people who have received the J&J vaccine.  To put this into perspective, it is twice as rare as getting hit by lightening! It is also important to remember that despite being so rare, the FDA …

This complication seems to happen a median of 9 days after vaccination—so it’s not an immediate side effect. And none of the cases occurred after 3 weeks of vaccination. Symptoms include: severe headache, difficulty breathing, abdominal pain, swelling in the legs and easy bruising.  If you have had these symptoms and recently (within the last …

 Yes! And that is part of the reason pause: to really look at all the information and, if it is related, to get appropriate information back to health care providers about exactly what this is, what to look for, and how to appropriately treat it.

With only 15 of these outcomes, it’s very hard to tell if something is truly a pattern.  However, analysis did not find any particular risk factors other than all of the people who had this complication were women and the majority (13/15) were under the age of 50. It is important to understand, however: this …

The complication was a combination of a rare type of clotting disorder called a cerebral sinus venous thrombosis and a low platelet count.   It is important to note that this is different from the regular blood clots we are used to thinking about.  In this case, the blood clot is the result of an immune-mediated …

The FDA and CDC wanted to evaluate a total of 15 rare events of cerebral venous thrombosis (a very rare type of clotting disorder) and low platelet count.  One of these people died; and another was hospitalized.  This syndrome (large vessel blood clots with low platelet count) was deemed to be biologically plausible to be …