Officials want more one-dose vaccines
Counties told ‘not to expect much more’ of Johnson & Johnson shot.
Clark and Champaign County health officials are both expressing frustration at not receiving any Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the coming weeks.
Gabe Jones, health commissioner at the Champaign Health District, said the county has been told “not to expect much more” of the one-dose vaccine after the county held a small Johnson &
Johnson clinic on Friday.
Clark County will not receive any Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines next week or for the foreseeable future, said Clark County
Combined Health District Commissioner Charles Patterson.
Jones said Champaign County was able to hold the Johnson & Johnson clinic on Friday because the county had some vaccine leftover from their its 300-dose allotment that was used for elderly residents who are homebound.
“We are hearing that we aren’t going to get a lot more of it in the future because it’s going to be redirected to some other sites,” Jones said.
Tabitha Rudolph was one person vaccinated at the clinic Friday. She said she felt “very fortunate”
to have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccination.
“It’s one shot. I hate needles. I didn’t want to do two shots,” Rudolph said.
Clark County is slated to receive 3,500 vaccines next week, Patterson said. None of those vaccines will be the Johnson & Johnson one-dose vaccine, which has been extremely popular in the county, he said.
“We’ve asked for it. We’ve begged for it. We know a lot of people want it,” Patterson said. “We know this is something our community is really, really interested in. We’ve talked with the governor one on one about how important it is for us.”
Patterson said the health district hasn’t been given a reason why the county isn’t receiving the vaccine on a regular basis. But without Johnson & Johnson doses, it makes it harder for the county to target specific areas of the population, he said.
“If we begin outreach clinic and we go to the Rainbow Table, or we go to the Soup Kitchen or someplace like that, where we may not see those people in three weeks for sure, or four weeks for sure, it would be great to have the J&J vaccine there,” Patterson said. “To give them that one shot, to give them that protection and to help that community.”
For Champaign County, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine just means “more options” for people like Rudolph, Jones said.
“Our whole thing is we want more people to get vaccinated. The more providers that are available, the more vaccine that is out there, that’s all that we care about and that’s what we are excited about,” Jones said. “We would love to get more Johnson & Johnson, we get questions about it every day.”
As of Friday, 34,388 Clark County residents had received at least one vaccine shot, according to data from the Ohio Department of Health. That’s about 25.6% of the county’s population. Nearly 16% of the county’s population has been fully vaccinated.
In Champaign County, 8,018 residents had received at least one vaccine shot, according to ODH, which is about 20.6% of the county’s population. Daily coronavirus cases dropped below 2,000 in Ohio again, with 1,551 reported on Friday, according to ODH.