The Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine is on pause – so what do you do if you’ve already received it?

RAPID CITY, S.D. — On April 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention temporarily paused the administration of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine after receiving six reports of blood clots in vaccine recipients. All six reports occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred six to 13 days after vaccination. One patient died.

The CDC says they do not know enough yet to say if the vaccine is related to or caused this health issue, but to be extra careful, both the CDC and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recommended that the vaccine not be given until more is known. Nearly seven million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S. since rollout began.

So what do you do if you’ve already received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

The CDC says if you received your vaccine more than three weeks ago, your risk of developing a blood clot is likely very low at this time. If you received the vaccine within the last three weeks, your risk of developing a blood clot is also very low and that risk will decrease over time, but you should contact your healthcare provider and seek medical treatment urgently if you develop any of the following symptoms:

• severe headache,
• backache,
• new neurologic symptoms,
• severe abdominal pain,
• shortness of breath,
• leg swelling,
• tiny red spots on the skin (petechiae), or
• new or easy bruising

If you experience any adverse events after vaccination, you should report them to v-safe and the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting Systemexternal icon. If you are scheduled to receive the J&J vaccine, the CDC asks that you contact your healthcare provider, vaccination location, or clinic to learn about additional vaccine availability.