The European Union, EU and South Africa have suspended the rollout of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine after US federal health agencies recommended pausing its use because of rare cases of blood clots in combination with low platelet counts.
This comes after six women under 50 developed rare blood clots in the United States among more than six million people that received the J&J shot.
“I held urgent consultations with our scientists, who have advised that we cannot take the decision by the FDA lightly,” South Africa’s Health Minister Zweli Mkhize told reporters.
“We have determined to voluntarily suspend our rollout until the causal relationship between the development of clots and the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is sufficiently interrogated,” Mkhize added, saying there had been no reports of blood clots in South Africa after roughly 290,000 vaccinations.
While the US Food and Drug Administration said the pause was expected to be a matter of days, Mkhize said South Africa’s COVID-19 vaccine deals with Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Pfizer have non-refundability clauses, meaning down payments will not be returned under any circumstances.
“This is another onerous term that we have had to settle for,” Mkhize added.
Meanwhile, the EU said it was seeking clarification from Johnson & Johnson about the company’s “completely unexpected” announcement of delays in vaccine deliveries to the European Union.
EU regulators had said last week they were reviewing the vaccine following the reports of blood clots but had not stopped the planned rollouts, which were expected to begin at the end of the month.
