Seattle woman dies linked to J&J COVID vaccine, health officials say

37-year-old Seattle woman who grew up in the Portland area and graduated from Oregon State University has become the fourth person to have died in the United States from a rare vaccine-related blood clotting complication Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19, according to his family and Washington health officials.

The Washington State Department of Health and Public Health – Seattle and King County said in separate statements Tuesday that they believed the woman had died from a complication described as “Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome”, also known as “vaccine-induced immune thrombotic thrombocytopenia (VITT).

Although neither state nor county authorities identified the woman by name, age “at the end of your thirties”, the date of death and county of residence match information in an obituary published by The Oregonian / OregonLive for Jessica Berg Wilson.

Local public health officials said the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention had confirmed the woman’s fatal diagnosis. The death is the first in Washington and the fourth in the country that the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention has linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, state officials say.

The woman received the vaccine on August 27 and died 12 days later on September 7, according to local officials.

An obituary submitted to The Oregonian / OregonLive on behalf of Wilson’s family by a Seattle funeral home severely criticized the vaccination warrants, saying Wilson felt compelled to get the vaccine. A tweet attributing Wilson’s death to the vaccine, as well as a link to the obituary, was temporarily called “misleading” by Twitter, prompting angry criticism on social media from opponents of the vaccine warrants.

Seattle and King County officials cited the CDC as saying that in early July more than 12 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine had been administered, but there had been very few problems blood clotting and much less death. The CDC put it at about seven severe cases of blood clotting per 1 million women aged 18 to 49 who received this single-shot vaccine. Conversely, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine prevented 297 hospitalizations, 56 intensive care unit admissions and six deaths per 1 million women in this age group who received the inoculation.

“As with many drugs, the risk of serious adverse events is small, but not zero,” Seattle and King County officials said in a statement Tuesday. “It is vital that people have this information in order to make their own informed decisions. “

Johnson & Johnson vaccine has come under intense scrutiny since the US Food & Drug Administration implemented an 11-day hiatus in April “out of excess of caution” as scientists study 15 cases rare and serious blood clots related to the vaccine. in women, most of them under 50. Three had died in April, but the FDA and CDC determined the benefits outweighed the risks and advised healthcare professionals on how to detect and treat rare clots in people who received this vaccine. .

That same month, Oregon officials said they were investigating whether the death of an Oregon woman in her 50s was linked to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. On Tuesday, the Oregon Health Authority could not say if any Oregonians died from any of the COVID-19 vaccines and referred questions to the CDC. The CDC could not be reached immediately to provide a response.

The Oregon Health Authority noted that more than 390 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines have been administered in the United States with overwhelming evidence of their effectiveness and safety. Meanwhile, more than 700,000 people in the United States have died from COVID-19, by far most unvaccinated.

Symptoms of Johnson & Johnson-related blood clotting syndrome usually occur within the first week or two after vaccination and may include severe headache, abdominal pain, nausea, leg swelling or shortness of breath.

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines did not cause the same clotting problems as the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Details beyond what was published in Wilson’s obituary remain scarce. Wilson’s family, through a spokesperson, declined to speak further with The Oregonian / OregonLive on Monday, a day before officials in Washington confirmed the cause of vaccine-related death.

An entry in the CDC’s Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which does not mention a name, appears to describe Wilson’s case. It says a 37-year-old woman who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on September 2 went to the emergency room two days later, feeling ill and suffering from back pain. It is not known why the vaccination date does not correspond to August 27 Dated announced by local health authorities.

Hospital tests were performed on the woman and she was discharged home, according to the case description in the federal database. The next day, she returned by ambulance with hemorrhages and bleeding, then died two days later on September 7, according to the entry.

Wilson was born in Portland and attended Riverdale Grade School, Jesuit High School, and Oregon State University. After graduating in 2007, she worked in human resources management, married Tom Wilson in 2012, and was “a beautiful mother” and “a devoted and supportive wife,” according to her obituary. He said she had “created a beautiful and serene home for her family to thrive.”

She is survived by her husband, her two daughters aged 3 and 5, two siblings and her parents, Arthur and Gwen Berg. She appears to have been the granddaughter of former Portland mayor Frank Ivancie.

Wilson “had been fiercely opposed to the vaccine knowing that she was healthy and young and therefore not at risk of serious illness,” according to the obituary. But she got vaccinated because she wanted to be a “roommate” and get involved in the education of her children.

Governor Jay Inslee demanded that all kindergarten to grade 12 daycare and school workers, as well as volunteers, be fully immunized against COVID-19 by October 18, as a pandemic tactic which has so far killed over 700,000 Americans. . Oregon Governor Kate Brown also issued a similar warrant for K-12 schools.

“In the last few weeks of his life… the world has turned dark with tough vaccination warrants,” Wilson’s obituary read. “Local and state governments were determined to take away his right to consult his wisdom and enjoy his freedom. “

The obituary continues: “Slowly, day after day, his freedom to choose was taken away. … It cost Jessica her life.

A statement from Seattle and King County public health officials said they and state officials “take vaccine safety very seriously” and will continue to monitor the progress of the vaccine. Science.

“We send our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones,” Dr Umair Shah, Washington’s health secretary, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Losing a loved one at any time is a tragic and difficult pain that has become all too familiar over the past year and a half of this pandemic.”

– Aimée Verte; [email protected]; @o_aimee