Vaccine providers across Connecticut were busy rescheduling appointments Tuesday for the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, offering instead the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna vaccines after the state Department of Public Health advised taking a pause on administering J&J shots as federal health authorities investigate reports of blood clots.
Officials hope to avoid as many canceled vaccination appointments as possible and continue the state’s current pace of getting shots into arms.
“There probably will be some, but we’re hopeful that the number will be very limited,” said Josh Geballe, Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s chief operating officer, referring to appointment cancellations. Geballe said the administration was working with vaccine providers to “rebalance” their supplies, helping to move around the state’s current supply of available doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine.
At about 9:30 a.m., state public health officials informed vaccine providers planning to hold clinics using J&J on Tuesday and in the coming days to delay those clinics or offer an alternative vaccine if they have a supply. The recommendation came shortly after the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration issued a joint statement that also recommended a “pause” in administering the single-dose vaccine.
None of the cases of blood clots, which occurred in six women and are considered very rare, occurred in Connecticut, the agency said in a statement. Roughly 100,000 Connecticut residents have received the J&J vaccine with no reported serious problems, DPH said.
“The CDC, FDA and Connecticut DPH all take vaccine safety extremely seriously,” the Connecticut public health agency said in a statement. “Although the reported complications are extremely rare, we will await the results of the investigation before proceeding with further use of the J&J vaccine.”
Walk-up mobile vaccination units were among the providers that either had to quickly swap out vaccines or postpone clinics. DPH said 10 of the yellow vans operated by Griffin Health, each of which can administer 100-125 doses per day, were postponed. The mobile units were prepared to go out Wednesday and administer either Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. Griffin, DPH and local health authorities were reviewing plans for Wednesday and Thursday clinics, according to an agency spokesperson.
Meanwhile, the FEMA mobile unit still set up shop in New Britain on Tuesday, with a goal of vaccinating 400 people. But instead of administering the J&J vaccine, it provided the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine, Geballe said. Participants in Tuesday’s clinic were advised to check the city of New Britain’s website to learn when second dose clinics will become available.
Connecticut planned or already has used the one-dose J&J vaccine to reach underserved neighborhoods, vaccinate groups of teachers and college and high school students. The popular one-dose shot is also being offered at other clinics around Connecticut, including those run by local health districts and grocery stores.
“Last week, which was our all-time record in terms of vaccine deliveries in the state of Connecticut, Johnson & Johnson, was a significant percentage, about 40%. So it was a meaningful amount last week,” Geballe said.
However, the state last week had to change some of its vaccination plans after learning its expected shipment of 20,000 doses of J&J this week would drop to 6,000 and then down to 2,000 the following week, after company had to discard 15 million doses last month that didn’t meet quality standards. Instead of giving college students the J&J vaccine before they left for summer break, state officials now plan to give them one dose of Pfizer or Moderna before they go home, where they’ll have to get the second shot.
Vaccination clinics where J&J was supposed to be administered in Bridgeport and New Haven were postponed on Tuesday. Hartford Healthcare, which has provided more than 18,800 vaccinations using J&J - far less than the more than 236,000 combined first and second doses of Pfizer and nearly 76,000 combined doses of Moderna - said all of its clinics would provide only Pfizer and Moderna products for now.
Dr. James Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s chief clinical integration officer, said most of the health system’s sites were already using Pfizer and Moderna. He said emergency room patients and people being discharged had begun to receive J&J vaccinations, but those efforts have now been halted.
“It does clearly have some implications long term in terms of our strategy,” he said. “But we will just have to watch and see what that happens as we go forward.”
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