COVID-19 Vaccines: 5 New Things To Know

ACROSS AMERICA — Recent developments with the COVID-19 vaccines may mean Americans could receive more shots than they may have expected in the fight against the coronavirus.

States have temporarily paused giving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six women reported a rare blood clotting issue within two weeks of receiving their shots. One of the women, all between the ages of 18-48, died.

That pause came at the urging of the federal Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which said it gives researchers time to determine if the issue is directly related to the vaccine or coincidental.

Also, both Pfizer and Moderna said this week annual booster shots will likely be needed to increase the effectiveness of their vaccines.

The news comes as the country approaches President Joe Biden’s goal of administering 200 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccines within the first 100 days of his presidency, which concludes at the end of April 29.

CNN reports around 195 million doses have been administered in the U.S. as of Thursday, which equates to about 59 doses for every 100 people.

Here are the five latest things to know about the COVID-19 vaccines.

1. There’s no reason to panic over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being paused.

Health experts are cautioning people not to get too concerned over the issue, especially those who already had the J&J shot. Roughly 6.8 million people in the U.S. have been given the Johnson & Johnson vaccine according to the FDA. So far, only six women have reported the blood clotting issue two weeks after their shots — a rate of about 1 case per million.

Some observers have compared the risk of the vaccine to a similar blood clotting issue that can occur after taking birth control pills. The FDA reports that 1 to 5 women out of 10,000 would likely develop a blood clotting issue after taking birth control pills that contained a synthetic hormone called drospirenone.

Although both issues are rare, a doctor told BuzzFeed News reports the clotting problem experienced by the Johnson & Johnson users is not the same as the one from birth control pills.

"It’s not only not apples to apples, it’s basically apples to papayas. It is completely different," Hanny al-Samkari, a hematologist in Massachusetts and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, told the site. "Yes, they both can cause clots, just like apples and papayas are both fruits, but the mechanisms are totally different."

The clotting related to birth control pills is known as a deep vein thrombosis, which develops in a person's legs and can be treated with blood thinners, according to the site. The clotting issue the six women developed is known as a cerebral venous sinus thrombosis, which can drain the blood supply to the brain and is not easily treated with thinners.

While the issue the women developed after taking the J&J vaccines is rarer than from birth control pills, vaccines have a higher safety requirement than other medications, and any significant adverse effects that are reported are taken more seriously, according to BuzzFeed.

2. No Clotting issues have been reported regarding the Modern and Pfizer vaccines.

The pause in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine shouldn't cast doubt on the safety of the remaining two COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna. About 185 million Americans have received a dose of one of the vaccines, and no serious side effects have been reported that would cause a similar pause in distribution, according to Insider.

One reason that may be is because the two vaccines use mRNA to trigger the body's immune response, while Johnson & Johnson is a modified common-cold virus. Researchers also hypothesize the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were tested and released earlier than Johnson & Johnson's so there was more time to study any suspected adverse reactions, according to the publication.

3. A Booster vaccine might be required after a year.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel have said they expect people will need a booster shot of their vaccines around one year after their final dose.

The two have said the COVID-19 may turn into a yearly shot to deal with the changing variants of the virus, similar to how a new flu vaccine is released annually in response to new strains.

Bancel told CNBC he expects doses of the Moderna booster shot to be ready as soon as this fall.

“I anticipate in the next year or so, we’re going to see a lot of variants. But as more and more people get vaccinated or naturally infected, the pace of the variant is going to slow down and the virus is going to stabilize like you see with flu,” he told the network.

It’s unknown when the Pfizer booster will become available.

4. An oral vaccine is currently being developed.

A biotech company in El Segundo, California, is developing an oral alternative to the COVID-19 vaccines that would be administered through a series of capsules.

Researchers at the Chan Soon-Shiong Research Institute are seeing if the pills alone can prevent transmission against the virus or if a shot is still required, according to CBS News.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, who owns the company, told the network the pills would target the interior body of the virus, whereas the other vaccines promote the development of antibodies that attack the virus's exterior protein shell.

“By giving a jab, we hope to develop T-cells all around your body," he told CBS. "And by giving orally, we protect the mucus membranes, the gut and hopefully the nose, the mouth, because that's how the virus comes in. It doesn't come in through your blood.”

Soon-Shiong is also the owner of The Los Angeles Times and is a partial owner of the Los Angeles Lakers.

5. The U.S. is looking at a possible vaccine surplus.

America is on track to having a surplus of several hundred million doses of the coronavirus vaccine, according to a report from the Duke Global Health Innovation Center.

The report's authors estimate the U.S. will "likely have 300 million or more excess doses" of the vaccines with the belief the AstraZeneca vaccine will be granted an emergency-use authorization, much like the other three vaccines. Use of that vaccine has been halted in Europe and Canada after people reported experiencing blood clotting issues similar to that experienced following the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

With the potential surplus, there are concerns the U.S. might be hoarding the vaccines as developing countries are in desperate need of doses, according to the report’s authors.

The report found high-income countries such as the U.S. have purchased 4.6 billion doses of the various coronavirus vaccines while low-income nations only have 770 million doses.

“Just four nations or regions with less than half the world’s population have administered 70 percent of all COVID-19 vaccine doses, while the poorest countries have barely begun vaccinating due to lack of funding and supply,” the author’s wrote.