A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory panel on Friday urged the U.S. to resume Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations despite a very rare risk for blood clots.
The guidance follows an 11-day pause in inoculations that was triggered by concerns over 15 cases of a rare blood clot that occurred out of nearly 8 million people who had received the vaccine in the U.S.
The panel voted 10 to 4 to recommend restarting the vaccinations but suggested that the shot include a warning about the increased risk of the very rare but severe blood clots.
“Today’s presentations and discussions have convinced me that lifting the pause on J&J’s vaccine is in the best public health interest of the U.S. population,” said Dr. Henry Bernstein, a professor of pediatrics at the Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell in New York.