Fauci: ‘Strong similarities’ between J&J, AstraZeneca clotting issues

Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases specialist, on Wednesday, said that he sees “similarities” between clotting issues that have arisen in a small handful of patients who took the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine and issues that arose in some patients that were administered AstraZeneca’s vaccine.

Speaking on NBC’s “Today,” Fauci said that the two issues “certainly could be [connected],” adding that there were some “rather strong similarities” between the two groups of patients.

“There are some rather strong similarities about this with regard to the timeframe following vaccination, particularly, importantly, the clinical syndrome of these clots together with low platelets, so there are a lot of similarities there that you just can’t miss,” Fauci said.

Do you see any connections with the clotting issues observed with regard to Johnson & Johnson and the clotting issues observed with regard to AstraZeneca overseas? –@SavannahGuthrie

-There are some rather strong similarities. -Dr. Anthony Fauci pic.twitter.com/7KK3Hgwt5s

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 14, 2021

Fauci’s remarks come a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged states to “pause” distribution of the J&J vaccine in response to six patients, all women between 18 and 48, who developed blood clotting issues after taking the vaccine.

The issue appeared similar to a clotting issue that caused European regulators to pause distribution of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, though that pause has ended in some countries as they face a resurgence of new COVID-19 cases.

Health experts in the U.S. have stressed that there is no danger presented to the roughly 7 million patients in the U.S. who have received the J&J vaccine and added that the pause was put in place to allow physicians the time to understand the treatment necessary to respond to the clotting issues.