SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — A San Francisco area hospital confirmed to NewsNation affiliate KRON Monday it is treating a man who developed rare blood clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
According to UCSF, the male patient is believed to be the first man in the U.S. with VITT syndrome – vaccine-induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia.
The news comes after the state gave the OK to resume the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after federal scientific advisers decided its benefits outweigh a rare risk of blood clots.
The federal government uncovered 15 vaccine recipients who developed a highly unusual kind of blood clot out of nearly 8 million people given the J&J shot. All were women, most under age 50. Three died, and seven remain hospitalized.
But ultimately, federal health officials decided that J&J’s one-and-done vaccine is critical to fight the pandemic — and that the small clot risk could be handled with warnings to help younger women decide if they should use that shot or an alternative.