Health officials considered issuing a warning before deciding to recommend a pause of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine

As health officials discussed how to handle reports of blood clots possibly linked to Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, one option considered was issuing a warning to health care providers without recommending a full pause, multiple sources told CNN.

But as officials discussed the best path forward during a Zoom call on April 12, they decided recommending a full pause would be necessary because four of the women had been treated with the anticoagulant drug heparin. The rare type of blood clots observed in these cases require unique treatment and heparin should not be used to treat these types of blood clots, according to doctors and health officials.

The US Food and Drug Administration officials are now waiting for a Friday meeting with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory committee before taking any more steps.

The CDC and FDA last week recommended that the United States pause the use of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine over six reported US cases of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot. The six reported cases were among more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine administered in the United States.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.