Clinics push on without J&J vaccine
Providers: ‘Little impact’ on CT mobile vaccination efforts
COVID vaccination efforts at Connecticut mobile vans and pop-up clinics pressed on Wednesday — one day after the sudden pause of Johnson & Johnson vaccines left some scrambling for other options.
Where the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was preferred, providers and state officials said vaccination efforts will continue, reverting back to the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that have already been widely used in mobile and pop-up clinics.
On Tuesday, the state, following guidance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, called on
providers to temporarily suspend administering Johnson & Johnson vaccines as federal agencies investigate six cases of individuals developing a rare blood clot after receiving the vaccine.
The CDC’s independent vaccine advisory committee met Wednesday to discuss the cases, but did not vote to provide a recommendation on if or when to lift the pause. The committee plans to meet again within 10 days.
While some Connecticut mobile clinics using Johnson & Johnson vaccines had to reschedule Tuesday, nearly all appeared to be back up and running Wednesday with either Pfizer or Moderna. The state Department of Public Health was working with providers to ensure that people get the needed second dose.
Deidre Gifford, acting DPH commissioner, anticipated small glitches with getting people scheduled for a second dose, but said those should be quickly worked out.
“We know that people will need a second dose, and they'll get their card and the date that they need their second dose,” Gifford said.
Gifford said the FEMA mobile vaccine clinic, which switched to another vaccine from Johnson & Johnson, would make a “second round,” and other mobile units would try to do the same.
Amid the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause, officials stressed that people should still get inoculated as the virus continues to spread.
Connecticut on Wednesday reported a positivity rate of 4.41 percent for new COVID-19 tests. Hospitalizations fell a net of 27 patients to 518 statewide and another 10 people died with the disease for a total of 7,984 fatalities.
Providers said a shift from Johnson & Johnson was not a substantial issue since most mobile efforts and pop-up clinics have been relying on all three vaccines because supplies of each change weekly.
“We have never had a Johnson & Johnson-only approach to our mobile clinics,” said Dr. Ohm Deshpande, physician leader for Yale-New Haven Health’s vaccination program.
While Johnson & Johnson offers ease in vaccinating more people quickly, the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been valuable tools in reaching all communities.
“We just have to do two clinics. We have to make it very clear when they get their first vaccine when that clinic is going to be.
We’ve been doing that for pretty much all our mobile clinics thus far,” Deshpande said.
And, Deshpande said, people have been showing up for both appointments.
“The number of noshows we’ve had is really, really low [at the pop-up sites],” Deshpande said. “We’ve had a very low noshow rate.”
Community Health Center, which runs and supports a number of small clinics along with mass vaccination sites, did not expect getting people a second dose would be a major problem since the organization has also relied heavily on Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
“J&J vaccines were less than 1 percent of our overall allocation, so the pause has had little impact on CHC. We had a few upcoming clinics, where it was scheduled to be used, but we shifted to Pfizer for those clinics,” said Leslie Gianelli, CHC’s vice president for communications.
For those clinics that have been using Johnson & Johnson, Gianelli said: “We’re scheduling people for their second dose when they receive the first, and don’t anticipate any problems.”
State officials remained confident this week that a pause in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would not hamper efforts to reach vulnerable populations.
“We're gonna make sure that those vans continue — those mobile vans taking Moderna and Pfizer vaccines right to those very same communities — and making sure that we do everything we can to ensure that they get vaccinated,” Gov. Ned Lamont said.
It appears the timing of the pause may have softened the blow for the state’s efforts to quickly vaccinate all adults. Johnson & Johnson supplies, which had surged late March into early April, were set to drop sharply starting this week and in the coming weeks.
With the anticipated decrease in Johnson & Johnson doses, DPH had already warned providers about supply, and in turn, those providers were already shifting clinics to Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
For Hartford HealthCare, the Johnson & Johnson pause did not have a sharp impact on its mobile clinics.
Dr. James Cardon, HHC’s chief clinical integration officer, said one of the few impacts was a second-dose mobile clinic this week had planned to take people who needed a first dose and use Johnson & Johnson, but shifted to another vaccine.
Speaking to the decline in Johnson & Johnson vaccine allocations, Cardon said the pause came at a fortunate time because “we had scaled back the J&J administration at our sites preemptively.”
The drop in available Johnson & Johnson vaccines going into this week may have helped head off issues with college-specific vaccination efforts.
While supply of the single-dose vaccine was high, state officials said they were working with colleges and universities to ensure that students received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine before the semester ended. But last week, state officials said plans were being amended.
Josh Geballe, Lamont’s chief operating officer, said last week they are now working to give college students a single dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine before they head home and are talking with both the White House and governors in other states if they will do the same.
Lamont’s administration said the thinking is vaccines will be more widely available nationwide by the end of May when a second dose for these students would be required.