Some important vaccine information specific to people affected by blood clots or clotting disorders that can be shared by the National Blood Clot Alliance includes:
- Medical experts agree that people who previously had a blood clot, who have a family history of clotting, or who have been diagnosed with a clotting disorder can get vaccinated for COVID-19. In addition, medical experts advise that people prescribed anticoagulant therapies can receive the new COVID-19 vaccine, including people who are prescribed:
- Older anticoagulation therapies, such as warfarin (Coumadin®), as long as INR testing is up to date and INR is below 4 or below the upper threshold of a person’s therapeutic range.
- Newer anticoagulants, or direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs), such as apixaban (Eliquis®), dabigatran (Pradaxa®), edoxaban (Savaysa®), and rivaroxaban (Xarelto®).
- Anticoagulation therapies injected under the skin, such as enoxaparin (Lovenox®) and fondaparinux (Arixtra®).
- While skin lacerations can pose bleeding concerns for patients prescribed anticoagulation treatments – and some risk for bleeding with needle injection for vaccination may exist – medical experts confirm that this type of vaccine injection does not pose any serious bleeding risk for people prescribed anticoagulation therapy. Also, there may be some bruising at the vaccine injection site. Medical experts suggest that people apply pressure to the injection site for about five minutes to help reduce bleeding and bruising.
- Not everyone will experience side effects when they get the COVID-19 vaccine, but similar to the flu vaccine, there are several common side effects that people might experience after vaccination. The most common side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine include: Pain or swelling in the arm where you get vaccinated, fever, chills, fatigue, and/or headache.
You can read more here about the vaccines presently authorized by the Food & Drug Administration for emergency use in the United States. Click here for information about how to find a vaccine.
Click here for more information about getting your COVID-19 vaccine.