CDC vaccine advisers vote to recommend Pfizer, Moderna vaccines over J&J's

Vaccine advisers to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention voted 15-0 Thursday to change recommendations for Covid-19 vaccines to make clear that shots made by Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech are preferred over Johnson & Johnson's vaccine.

The new recommendation: "mRNA vaccines are preferred over the Janssen Covid-19 vaccine for the prevention of Covid-19 for those 18 years of age and over."

The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices endorsed the updated recommendation after hearing new data indicating that a rare blood clotting syndrome is more common among people who recently got a J&J vaccine than previously believed. The CDC has logged 54 cases in the US of thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome or TTS in the US since the vaccine became available.

Nine people have died -- seven women and two men.

Rates are higher than previously estimated among both men and women, the CDC's Dr. Isaac See told the meeting. While only a few cases have been seen for every million people vaccinated by age group, they are higher than what was believed when vaccine advisers were last briefed.