J&J PAUSE WON’T CHANGE OPENING PLANS
California officials said Tuesday they were optimistic they could still hit vaccination and reopening targets even as they moved to temporarily stop administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The move came on the recommendation of federal health officials after reports of six serious blood clots nationwide. Officials characterized the stoppage as a cautionary move and emphasized that the reactions that prompted it are exceedingly rare.
The pause in J&J vaccines will not change California’s plan to expand vaccine eligibility to all residents 16 or older starting Thursday, or to fully reopen the economy two months from now, officials said.
“It will not materially impact our ability to fulfill our
expectations and commitment to ... fully vaccinate all those that seek to get vaccinated so that we can begin to more fully open our economy by June 15,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday during a news conference in Butte County, where he signed a bill to dedicate $536 million to wildfire prevention.
Almost 875,000 Johnson & Johnson doses have been administered in California, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nationwide, the number is in excess of 7.2 million.
“The J&J vaccine has been extraordinarily safe, save for six specific reported instances that the CDC and the FDA have highlighted today,” Newsom said. “That’s less than one in a million incidences that were deemed severe.”
Officials also expressed confidence that the pause won’t throw a significant wrench in the state’s race to widely vaccinate as many people as possible. Less than 4% of California’s allocation from the federal government this week — 67,600 out of roughly 2 million doses — is from Johnson & Johnson.
The remainder is Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, both of which are being distributed and administered as normal.
“As the federal government has said, we do not expect a significant impact to our vaccination allocations,” state epidemiologist Dr. Erica
Pan said in a statement.
Newsom, who himself received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine April 1, said roughly 8,800 appointments scheduled for that vaccine through the state’s My Turn platform will need to be converted to Moderna and Pfizer alternatives.
“We’re mindful that, with the J&J, our ability to do as much as we anticipated this week, and over the next few weeks, is impacted,” he said. “But our medium- and longterm goals are not impacted because of the abundance of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines that we indeed anticipate not only this week, compared to next week, but also
in the subsequent and upcoming weeks.”
In Los Angeles, the pause will not affect permanent vaccination sites but will alter plans to provide about 3,000 scheduled doses through the city’s mobile MOVE clinics, officials said Tuesday.
“All appointments at our permanent sites will happen as planned, and the city’s MOVE clinics will honor the appointments for anyone scheduled to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with a first dose of Pfizer as we await further information from health officials,” Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office said in a statement.
Before the state’s announcement, both the city and county of Los Angeles confirmed they too would halt use of the Johnson & Johnson shot.
County health officials said the pause would last until the Food and Drug Administration and CDC finished looking into the matter, a review that’s “expected to take several days.”
In the meantime, providers in the county “will contact patients about rescheduling or providing a new appointment for Pfizer or Moderna vaccine,” the Department of Public Health wrote in an email after an inquiry from The
Times.
“People who received the vaccine in the last three weeks should look for any symptoms of these unusual clots, including severe headaches, abdominal or leg pain, and shortness of breath, and contact their medical provider if symptoms develop,” county officials wrote in their statement. “People who don’t have a medical provider can call 2-1-1 to connect with a healthcare provider.
“We are grateful to the researchers and scientists working to ensure that all medications or vaccines, including the COVID-19 vaccines, have the highest safety standards.”
The CDC has scheduled an emergency meeting for Wednesday to discuss the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Dr. Jeff Goad, professor and chair of the department of pharmacy practice at Chapman University, said the FDA panel would examine medical data to determine whether the small number of adverse reactions seems to be connected to the vaccine or is coincidental.
What people need to do, he said, “is wait and let the science guide and see what comes out of the discussions. That’s why we have these safety systems in place, to very rapidly and very early on detect and protect people. The systems are working.”