Riverside County pauses Johnson & Johnson vaccine at county clinics following FDA and CDC recommendations
The FDA and CDC recommended a "pause" in use of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine over concerns of "rare blood clot". Officials say there have been six reported cases of blood clots out of more than six-point-eight million doses delivered.
One woman has died.
All six cases occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48 and their symptoms developed six to 13 days after receiving the vaccination.
Top administration health officials said the pause could last anywhere from days to weeks.
News Channel 3’s Dani Romero has more on what does this mean for our county clinics.
This recommendation came out of an abundance of caution. County Health officials are hoping the pause will take days not weeks.
“We are following the guidance from the CDC and the FDA. so again, we are pausing on the Johnson and Johnson at our public health sites," said Dr. Geoffrey Leung, Riverside County Public Health officer.
This move effective immediately impacting about 600 appointments scheduled in Riverside County for Tuesday.
County Health officials have said there’s enough Pfizer and Moderna supply to cover the halt in Johnson & Johnson.
“We have plenty of doses on hand to more than make up with whatever we would lose with Johnson and Johnson," Jose Arballo, Public Information Specialist for Riverside County Health.
Jose Arballo from Riverside County explained that those who signed up for the single shot will be notified through their online appointment system of the changes.
Still, the county was able to react quickly preventing the thousands of Johnson and Johnson doses from going to waste.
“We'll be keeping them until the pause is over," said Arballo. "There really isn't any anticipation right now of any impact on supply.”
In Riverside County, over 19,000 people have received the single shot. Most of them were given to our vulnerable communities, so what does that mean for distribution now in those areas?
“We're now scheduling the second dose clinic for that mobile team," said Arballo. "The biggest challenge is just getting that second dose clinic operating because normally with Johnson and Johnson, we go out to these hard to reach communities and we just go out there and a single time and we're done with it.”
#California is pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and convening the Western States Scientific Safety Review Group to review the information provided by the federal government. pic.twitter.com/6JXMfLnyT2
— CA Public Health (@CAPublicHealth) April 13, 2021
California is pausing the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and convening the Western States Scientific Safety Review Group to review the information provided by the federal government.
MORE: FDA and CDC recommending ‘pause’ on use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine until further analysis
