What Johnson & Johnson 'pause' means for vaccinations worldwide | DW News

The rollout of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been paused in the US, Europe and South Africa after reports of rare blood clotting in a very small number of people. Health authorities said they were halting the use of the shot while they investigate the cases -- and that they were doing this out of "an abundance of caution." The Astra Zeneca jab was also recently temporarily suspended in some countries after being linked to rare blood clots.

Authorities are calling it a short "pause."

The US's Johnson and Johnson vaccine has hit the same stumbling block as the UK's AstraZeneca jab did last month: a likely link to a rare and deadly blood clot.

Use of Johnson and Johnson's Janssen vaccine has now been halted across the US, Europe and South Africa, with health authorities investigating six incidents of clotting in younger women, one of them fatal.

The US-developed vaccine uses an adenovirus to trigger immunity - the same mechanism as the UK's AstraZeneca vaccine. It accounts for roughly 5 percent of vaccines delivered so far in the US.

This is a setback to Europe, too. Johnson and Johnson announced it will delay it's rollout on the continent. The company had already started processing an order from the EU of 200 million doses.

The Janssen jab has been partially rolled out in Africa, where a majority of countries don't have enough vaccines even for their healthcare workers. The African Union signed a deal for 220 million doses this year.

But US authorities remain hopeful. They're saying it could only be a matter of days before the rollout resumes.

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