Advisory panel recommends J&J vaccine be given only to those 30 and over

The National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) said Monday the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine should only be given to people over the age of 30 who don’t want to wait for doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

Canada has yet to administer any doses of the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The first shipment of 300,000 doses was held back by Health Canada last week due to concerns about the facility in which an ingredient was manufactured.

In a report on the four COVID vaccines approved in Canada to date, NACI said there were 17 cases of Vaccine-Induced Immune Thrombotic Thrombocytopenia (VITT) reported out of eight million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

That resulted in the NACI recommendation be given only to those over 30 who don’t want to wait for one of Pfizer or Moderna.

NACI made the same recommendation last month about the AstraZeneca vaccine, which also has been linked to issues of blood clotting.