The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended on Thursday that Covid vaccines other than Johnson & Johnson's should be preferred, after its advisers cited increasing evidence that the company's shots can cause a rare blood clot disorder and at least nine deaths in the United States.
The decision adopted a recommendation by an expert panel that discouraged vaccine providers and adults from using Johnson & Johnson's shot. There was a higher risk for the blood clot condition. The risk was greatest for women 30 to 49 years old.
The vaccine is still in the market. The agency said that it will remain an option for people who are unable or unwilling to receive the more popular shots from Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech.
The vaccine has fallen out of favor in the United States. The company's vaccine has not fulfilled its promise as a traditional, one-and-done format that would be easy to deploy in more isolated or rural communities.
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There are many vaccines that have been tested in humans.
The New York Times has an interactive tracker for the coronaviruses vaccine.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been given to 16 million people in the United States, compared with 73 million fully immunized with Moderna's vaccine and 114 million with the Pfizer-BioNTech shots. Only 1.6 percent of Americans who received a booster chose Johnson & Johnson.
The benefits of the vaccine outweigh the risks, as the Food and Drug Administration reiterated this week.
Dozens of countries have authorized Johnson & Johnson's vaccine and have been using it in their immunization campaigns. It has lost popularity in many countries because of safety concerns and its less effectiveness against Covid.
Some governments have put restrictions on the shot because of the risk of blood clot. Several nations have ranked it lower for use than Pfizer-BioNTech's and Moderna's vaccines. Doctors in some countries have been told to counsel women under 50.
The surge in cases of the Delta coronaviruses variant and Omicron, the latest version that has already become dominant in some countries and is spreading fast in Britain and the United States, is the result of the C.D.C. panel's recommendation.
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Pfizer has a vaccine for children. The company said that a low dose of its coronaviruses vaccine did not produce an adequate immune response in young children. The vaccine may not be available for younger children for longer than expected.
The U.S. has over one million deaths. The number of Covid deaths in the United States has surpassed the number of deaths in any other country. Most of the deaths have involved people over the age of 65. One in 100 older Americans have died from the disease.
A single dose of Johnson & Johnson's shot may not be enough to protect against Omicron. The company said late last month that it was testing blood samples from clinical trial participants who have received its shot as a booster to see how their vaccine-generated antibodies fare against Omicron.
C.D.C. officials went into detail at the meeting about the 54 people in the United States who received the vaccine before the end of August. The rate of the condition was 3.8 cases per million people given the vaccine.
People who received a Johnson & Johnson shot months ago are not thought to be at risk for the clotting condition because the symptoms typically occur about nine days after the vaccine.
The shot from AstraZeneca, which is not authorized in the United States, has been linked to an increased risk for the condition. It has not been linked to Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.
One dose of Johnson & Johnson's vaccine offers less protection against infections than other vaccines. Federal health officials in October authorized boosters for people who had received a single shot of the company's vaccine at least two months earlier. They allowed people to get a second shot, but only if they had a Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.
