Clot risk forces changes in NY

New York will stop the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after federal health officials raised concerns about a possible link to blood clots, state officials said Tuesday.

Gov. Cuomo, who himself has received the vaccine, said that anyone with an appointments for the one-dose J&J shot at state facilities Wednesday will be offered the first of the two-shot Pfizer jabs instead.

But Big Apple officials said city sites would have to reschedule appointments, and people will be provided with either Pfizer or Moderna immunizations.

The state had more than 4,000 New Yorkers lined up for the J&J vaccine at its sites, and the city had another 4,000, officials said.

Mayor de Blasio — who also received the J&J shot along with his health commissioner, Dr. Dave Chokshi — said, “We both believe in the effectiveness of this vaccine. [But] all appointments that would have been for a Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been postponed.

“They will be rescheduled,” the mayor said, referring to shots at city-run facilities.

The suspension of the J&J immunization will halt the city’s home-vaccination campaign targeting the elderly and disabled because it relied exclusively on that shot.

The city has already administered about 234,000 J&J shots, a little less than half the total administered in the state.

Meanwhile on Tuesday, the CDC said it was examining a case of a woman who died after getting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The 45-year-old woman from Virginia got the shot early last month, then went to the hospital two weeks later, on March 17, with a severe headache and bleeding on the brain.