Pause in Vaccinations Results in Canceled Appointments Throughout States

The Albany County Well being Division in New York mentioned it could present Pfizer doses for a Johnson & Johnson clinic on Tuesday at an area college. The chief public well being officer in Detroit mentioned individuals who had appointments for a Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a city-run web site could be allowed to maintain their occasions and obtain a Pfizer or Moderna shot. And officers in New Hampshire, who had deliberate to make use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Tuesday at clinics and for homebound sufferers, mentioned they have been working to search out Pfizer or Moderna doses to make use of as a substitute.

“This information won’t decelerate New Hampshire,” Gov. Chris Sununu mentioned in an announcement. “Whereas the federal authorities has directed a quick pause within the J&J vaccine, the state is already working with our companions to make sure that they’ve another provide of Pfizer or Moderna to assist proceed their efforts immediately.”

However in some locations, there was no quick different. In Aurora, Ailing., a mass vaccination clinic deliberate for Tuesday was known as off, leaving 1,000 sufferers with out appointments. In Riverside County, Calif., cell clinics that had deliberate to vaccinate about 400 individuals in much less populous areas on Tuesday have been canceled. And in rural Jefferson County, in southeast Iowa, a Johnson & Johnson clinic focusing on manufacturing employees was scrapped on the final minute.

“It was so heartbreaking to me,” mentioned Christine Estle, the county’s public well being nurse administrator, who mentioned she and her colleagues had inspired the roughly 140 individuals scheduled to take care of make appointments at native pharmacies or hospitals.

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine had lengthy been seen as a key to the nation’s vaccination effort as a result of it requires just one shot, not like the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer regimens, and since it may be saved extra simply. In cities across the nation, public well being consultants had begun utilizing the vaccine in locations the place hesitancy about one shot — a lot much less two — is excessive.

“I simply need to do the whole lot we will to have these individuals who signed up for appointments nonetheless come for them with Pfizer or Moderna,” mentioned Dr. Allison Arwady, the Chicago public well being commissioner, who mentioned she nervous that the pause would undermine vaccine confidence and that she had already heard of skeptical sufferers asking whether or not the opposite photographs have been secure.

Dr. Arwady mentioned her division had been utilizing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to succeed in individuals who would possibly in any other case be unlikely to hunt one out by providing it at workplaces, church buildings and even alongside bus strains.