SC stops giving Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after US hits pause. What we know
South Carolina’s health department has suspended administering the Johnson & Johnson single-shot COVID-19 vaccine after federal oversight agencies hit pause on the company’s vaccine because several people who received a dose developed blood clots.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday strongly recommended that dispersal of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, also known as the Janssen vaccine, stop “out of an abundance of caution” after six women developed blood clots, the food and drug agency said.
“The FDA and CDC have recommended a pause. We are certainly going to follow that,” said Dr. Edward Simmer, South Carolina’s health director. “We are in the process right now of calling all of our providers and making sure they know that they should not give out the Janssen vaccine.”
The University of South Carolina, for example, was scheduled to begin administering Johnson & Johnson vaccines on Tuesday, but will suspend those administrations unless guidance from the FDA changes, said university spokesman Jeff Stensland. The state’s flagship university, however, does have enough Moderna and Pfizer vaccine to meet demand, he added.
Doctors have stressed that anyone who has already received the vaccine should not panic, as the clots are very rare.
The blood clots, the agencies said, were all documented among women ages 18 to 48, and the women developed symptoms six to 13 days after they each had received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
One woman has since died and another is in critical condition, Dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said at a Tuesday press conference.
“These adverse events appear to be extremely rare,” the agencies said. ”COVID-19 vaccine safety is a top priority for the federal government, and we take all reports of health problems following COVID-19 vaccination very seriously.”
Outside Columbia’s federal COVID-19 vaccine site, Simmer told reporters he did not think a pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would have a significant impact on the state’s vaccine availability.
While some clinics have had to cancel appointments as a result of the news, Simmer said about 95% or more of the state’s vaccination sites are not administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccines.
“We’re getting very little Janssen vaccine into the state right now anyway,” Simmer said. “So this will not be a major disruption to our supply chain.”
Simmer said the state health department was in the process of rescheduling or changing planned vaccine types for events that were going to use Johnson & Johnson, and said independent rural pharmacies, which had been the primary recipients of the one-dose shots, will likely be transitioned to Moderna, which has less stringent storage requirements than Pfizer.
“We anticipate we’ll be able to make up those gaps with Moderna,” Simmer said.
Johnson & Johnson doses accounted for just 8,700, or less than 7%, of the nearly 129,000 vaccine doses South Carolina received from the federal government this week, according to the CDC.
While Simmer said he understands vaccine hesitancy, especially now, he strongly encouraged South Carolinians to seek out clinics that offer the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which have not been known to cause serious side effects in patients.
Simmer said health officials’ quick action to discontinue Johnson & Johnson shots demonstrates just how closely they’re monitoring the safety of the vaccine and any side effects it may cause.
“The federal government is working with the state governments and others to act very quickly to get them out of circulation until we can make absolutely sure it’s safe,” he said. “This shows just how attentive we are to the safety of these vaccines and that we are willing to take action.”
Columbia’s federal vaccination site opens
Under a large white tent at Columbia Place Mall, Simmer said a mass vaccination site will open at the mall early Wednesday.
Workers from multiple state agencies, including the state health department, the Emergency Management Division and the state’s Department of Administration are working with the South Carolina National Guard, Richland County Emergency Services and the Federal Emergency Management Agency to operate the clinic.
The clinic will have the capacity to administer up to 1,000 COVID-19 shots a day, seven days a week for the next eight weeks.
FEMA is providing the vaccine doses, which will be in addition to the state’s normal weekly allotment.
Pfizer doses will be administered for the clinic’s first six weeks — three weeks of first doses, followed by three weeks of second doses, but the vaccine type used for the final two weeks is undetermined. Health officials had planned to use one-shot Johnson & Johnson doses for the last two weeks, but that plan is now on hold.
State officials said they were working with FEMA to ensure adequate vaccine was available for the entire eight-week clinic, which will run daily from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
The site will have a drive-thru and a walk-up component for residents who don’t have vehicles or prefer to be vaccinated inside.
Derrec Becker, spokesman for the Emergency Management Division, said preregistration is strongly recommended and can be done online at the agency’s website, but that the vaccination site also may be able to accommodate people who arrive without one.
Richland County was chosen to host the vaccination site based on federal criteria, including its sizable population and designation as a “high-risk” community, based on the CDC’s social vulnerability index and a series of other factors.
The county, and specifically the Census tract where the mall is located, has a larger proportion of non-white residents, residents living in poverty and households without access to a vehicle than South Carolina as a whole, according to U.S. Census data.
Gracia Szczech, a regional FEMA administrator, said the agency selected the Columbia Place Mall site, one of more than 30 federally-supported community vaccination sites nationwide, to support its mission of ensuring vulnerable populations have access to the vaccine and because it has adequate parking and access to public transportation.
The COMET, the city’s bus system, will provide free rides to the site for residents who do not have their own vehicles.
Reporter Lucas Daprile contributed to this report.
This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 10:17 AM.
