Covid19 : J&J Vaccine shot – warning for immune disorder
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to announce a new warning on Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine related to a rare autoimmune disorder, the Washington Post reported, citing four people familiar with the matter.
According to the Post, about 100 preliminary reports of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) have been detected in the United States after vaccination with J&J shot, mostly in men, many of whom were 50 or older. Around 12.8 million people have received the one-dose vaccine in the United States.
The revised fact sheet said symptoms began within 42 days of receiving the J&J shot. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the cases were seen mostly in men over the age of 50 about two weeks after being immunized. The CDC said that the issue will be discussed at an upcoming vaccine advisory committee meeting.
Guillain-Barré syndrome has previously been linked to other vaccines, including the 1976 swine flu vaccine and other flu vaccines. Some studies suggested that people were more likely to develop Guillain-Barré from the flu than from flu vaccines, which are monitored every year by the CDC for any associations with the condition. The FDA warned this year that GlaxoSmithKline’s shingles vaccine, Shingrix, could also increase the risk of the disease.
Johnson & Johnson had earlier said that its Covid-19 vaccine showed strong promise against the Delta variant and other emerging strains and also provided durable protection against the infection more broadly. The healthcare company in a statement said that its vaccine was 85% effective and could also help prevent hospitalisation and death.
Federal regulators also attached warnings to the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, but some government health officials described them as less serious than the warnings about Johnson & Johnson. The agency last month pointed to an increased risk of inflammation of the heart or the tissue surrounding it diseases known as myocarditis and pericarditis particularly among adolescents and young adults who had received Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna shots.
