County pulls Moderna vaccine

The batch - pulled following reports of allergic reactions - included 1,700 doses from this lot

Yolo County has paused distribution of a batch of the Moderna brand COVID-19 vaccines after the state Department of Public Health announced higher rates of allergic reactions related to those doses.

The 1,700 doses of these vaccines in Yolo County were reserved for second innoculations. None of these vaccines have been administered, according to Jenny Tan, the county’s public information officer.

The news comes as the United States exceeded 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus, or nearly 2,000 people every 10 minutes and a quarter of them within the past month. The country is on pace to hit 500,000 deaths by the end of February, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The CDC, FDA and Moderna are investigating the allergic reactions related to vaccination lot number 41L20A, and vaccination distribution may slow down while these doses are held back.

Tan said the county is asking for more doses from the state.

According to a statement from State Epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan, there were fewer than 10 adverse reactions reported in 24 hours at an unidentified community vaccination site.

“Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete,” Pan stated. “We will provide an update as we learn more.”

The state distributed over 330,000 doses from this lot to 287 providers throughout the state. The doses arrived in California between Jan. 5 and 12. There

have been no other reports of clusters of allergic reactions at any other vaccination site.

The Department of Public Health stated that they believe the investigation will provide further information later this week.

Although there is not a large amount of data related to the Moderna vaccine, similar vaccines have a rate of anaphylaxis of about one in 1,000, according to the Department of Public Health.

As of Jan. 14 — the last

time the county’s dashboard was updated — Yolo County has distributed 4,246 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The county announced Tuesday that residents 65 and over will be vaccinated in Phase 1B, tier one. They are currently vaccinating Phase 1A, tiers two and three and expect to be ready to move into Phase 1B in the next few weeks so long as additional doses are received from the state, according to Tan.

The county will run out of vaccines in the next week if the state does not grant them another allotment.

“The county is working hard to secure the needed vaccine doses from the

state. However, the state’s expanded eligibility is incongruent with the current reality of extremely limited vaccine supply. When everybody is a priority, nobody is a priority. Pushing counties into Phase 1B and expanding Phase 1B Tier 1 to include everyone 65 and older at a time when Yolo County doesn’t even have enough vaccine to finish Phase 1A is creating unreasonable expectations among the public,” stated Yolo County’s Public Health Officer Dr. Aimee Sisson. “Yolo County is administering doses as quickly as possible. We will begin vaccinating those 65 and older and others in Phase 1B as soon as we finish vaccinating the several thousand remaining health care workers prioritized in Phase 1A.”

The county anticipates that individuals age 65 and older will be able to be vaccinated through multicounty entities, such as Kaiser Permanente and Dignity Health. If their provider is not within those entities or an eligible individual does not have insurance, the county will be holding vaccination clinics.

Residents can sign up to receive notifications regarding vaccination timelines, including when they will be eligible to be vaccinated at http://bit.ly/VaccineAvailability.