Okay, blood clot time!

“Why’d they stop the J&J and AZ if hormonal birth control has been giving women blood clots for decades?”

I’m not a biologist or healthcare professional, but I asked one and I’m a science communication professional.

Blood clots are categorized by where in the body they get stuck, and what led to them forming / how to treat them. Clots from hormonal birth control can form in many places (brain, lungs, legs), and usually can be treated with blood thinners.

What makes the vaccine-caused blood clots different is they form in the brain or sometimes the lungs, and they’re forming (they think) due to low platelet counts in the blood (which also is associated with increased bleeding).

The usual treatments for clots can be blood thinners (prevents new clots from forming, but increases bleeding), or clot-busting drugs (breaks up existing clots). In this case, blood thinners would cause even more bleeding (bad), so they need to be treated with clot-busting only.

The suspension of the J&J vaccine in the US (and the AZ in Europe) is partially to raise awareness in doctors that the vaccine-caused clots need to be treated differently.

Risk factors: J&J or AZ vaccine. Female (unknown if affects AFAB trans men, AFAB nonbinary on HRT, or AMAB trans women on HRT). Age 18-48.

Symptoms: splitting headache different from usual, breathing issues different from usual, numbness in a limb, stroke-like symptoms.

/end

Adding, here’s the FDA/CDC joint statement: https://twitter.com/racheljpat/status/1382043465161265156