Everything You Need to Know About COVID-19 Vaccines and Blood Clots

• Experts continue to say blood clots caused by COVID-19 vaccines are a rare occurrence.
• So far, the clots have appeared in about 5 people for every 1 million vaccinated. The rate among people diagnosed with COVID-19 is 39 per million.
• A government panel is scheduled to announce on April 23 a decision on whether to lift the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The parents of an 18-year-old Nevada woman say she is slowly improving after experiencing seizures this month.

Her family says the teen, Emma Burkey, has had three brain surgeries related to blood clots. She began feeling sick about a week after receiving the one-dose Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Burkey is among the youngest of the six women the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) cited as it paused the vaccine last week.

Of the 7.5 million doses given, the agency says the half dozen women, ages 18 to 48, developed a rare type of blood clot. The rare clots can appear in the brain or abdomen, along with a low blood platelet level that affects clotting.

At the White House COVID-19 Response Team’s briefing on April 19, CDC Director Rochelle Wallensky said scientists are investigating a few other cases to see whether they’re related.

Meanwhile, the pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is going into its second week. Some experts worry an extended pause could erode the public’s faith in the vaccine.

Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and a consultant and non-voting member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), says the pause is proof the system is working.

“Here in the United States, we have the world’s best vaccine safety surveillance system,” he told Healthline. “It picked out a needle in a haystack, this very unusual phenomenon… occurred once for every 1 million doses distributed.

“These cases were quickly identified, analyzed, and there was an emergent meeting of the ACIP. The committee put on the pause while they are gathering more data,” Schaffner added. “There’s no drug or vaccine that is without the occasional rare side effect.”