Sacramento County Clinics Pause Use Of Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine After CDC Guidance
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Clinics scheduled to take place through Sacramento County's Equivax collaboration are automatically switching people from the Johnson & Johnson to the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, officials say.
As of 4/12, 6.8m+ doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered in the U.S. CDC & FDA are reviewing data involving 6 reported U.S. cases of a rare & severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the vaccine. Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare
— U.S. FDA (@US_FDA) April 13, 2021
On Tuesday, the CDC and FDA released a joint statement recommending a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
The agencies said they are reviewing six reported cases of a "rare and severe" type of blood clot in people who have received the J&J single-dose vaccine. This comes after more than 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been given out.
Health officials said all the blood clot cases they are looking into happened to women between the ages of 18 and 48 and occurred 6 to 13 days after getting the vaccine.
California was already bracing for a sharp cut in the supply of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Due to the guidance from the CDC and FDA released on Tuesday, Equivax announced their scheduled clinics will be using only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
#BREAKING As per Equivax all clinics will continue and switch to @pfizer and Moderna vaccines instead. @GoodDaySac @CBSSacramento
— Rachel Wulff (@rachelwulff) April 13, 2021
Gov. Gavin Newsom also announced on Tuesday that California will be following the guidance and temporarily pausing its use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
"Vaccines are still overwhelmingly safe," Newsom tweeted.
Newsom noted that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine accounted for just 4 percent of California's supply.
Out of an abundance of caution CA will follow the CDC & FDA & temporarily pause use of J&J.
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) April 13, 2021
J&J is just 4% of CA's supply from the feds right now.
Vaccines are still overwhelmingly safe.
We're vaccinating 3+ million people a week and are still on track to fully reopen 6/15.
People with appointments scheduled at Equivax locations, like Tuesday's event at Luther Burbank High School, don't need to do anything as appointments have automatically been switched to the Pfizer vaccine.
The limited supply also means that Equivax clinics will not be able to take walk-ins on Tuesday, officials said.
About 4,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine were scheduled to be administered at the Luther Burbank event on Tuesday.
Sacramento's Loaves & Fishes has also canceled its weekly vaccination clinic for homeless people as the vaccine that would have been administered is the Johnson & Johnson one.