What does the hold on Johnson & Johnson’s COVID vaccine mean for Fresno County, Valley?
Fresno and other counties in the state have been ordered to put a hold on the one-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine after rare but severe blood clotting in some recipients, the state Department of Health said on Tuesday.
Of the 6.8 million distributed doses in the country, there have been six cases of a “rare and severe type of blood clot” that occurred six to 13 days after the shot, according to Dr. Erica Pan, state epidemiologist for CDPH.
Meanwhile, California counties have received about 900,000 doses of the J&J shot, which makes up about 4% of all the vaccines, according to department.
Thousands of those vaccines have come to Fresno and other counties in the central San Joaquin Valley. Consequently, those shots will not be administered until the state says otherwise.
In Fresno County, 21,631 of the county’s half million doses are J&J. That J&J allocation is also about 4% of Fresno County’s stock, which is the state average.
About 2,300 J&J doses were set to be administered into patients at a local clinic this week, according to Joe Prado, community health division manager for the Fresno County health department. He said those holes left by the pause would be filled primarily by Pfizer vaccine shots, and to a lesser extent Moderna shots.
The lack of interest from Fresno County residents leaves health officials with more shots on hand than can be injected into arms, he said.
“We’re still seeing the system not being fully utilized,” Prado said. “We definitely have ample supply. We have ample slots available for people to go out and get vaccinated.”
In the six-county central San Joaquin Valley region, 39,530 J&J vaccines have been distributed.
There has been a hesitancy among some to get a vaccine, and these cases may seem troubling but vaccines are highly studied and safe, according to Dr. Rais Vohra, the interim health officer for the county.
The problematic cases make up less than one out of a million vaccines distributed and still brought a “major announcement” from the FDA and CDA, Vohra noted.
“This just shows just how scrutinized these products are,” he said.
People who have had a J&J vaccine do not need to worry, health officials said. Anyone with a headache, stomach pain or leg pain that extends past 24 hours may want to call their physician.
“It’s still worth it to get the vaccine, because your chance of catching COVID and getting hospitalized from COVID is still much greater than your chance of getting an adverse reaction like this,” Vohra said.
All six problematic cases involving the vaccine occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, according to a joint statement from the Center for Disease Control and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The clots occurred in veins that drain blood from the brain and occurred together with low platelets.
One of the patients died, according to health officials.
“California is following the FDA and CDC’s recommendation and has directed health care providers to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until we receive further direction from health and safety experts,” Pan said.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
