Pennsylvania extends pause of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania health officials said Thursday that they have notified vaccination providers that the pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine has been extended until April 24 or until there is updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration.

The pause was previously supposed to end on April 20, but officials said they need more time to review the six reports of rare blood clots after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

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One of those cases involves a 26-year-old Pennsylvania woman who has recovered after being treated at a New Jersey hospital.

According to federal data, Pennsylvania has received 778,000 doses of the J&J vaccine and administered more than 257,000.

The Wolf administration had reserved its initial allotment of the J&J vaccine for educators. The vast majority of Pennsylvania residents who have been vaccinated received either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, which are unaffected by the pause.

That obviously affects things here in Pittsburgh — including mass vaccination clinics that were planned across the city, including on to be held Wednesday.

Diane Hupp, chief nursing officer & VP of operations at UPMC Children’s Hospital, said they are very disappointed. Upon the CDC’s recommendation to pause the J&J vaccine — UPMC is now planning to administer Pfizer shots at the clinic.

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“With UPMC being the size that it is and the vaccine that we are allocated on a weekly basis we are redeploying from other areas and we do anticipate additional vaccine to come in this week,” she said.

Just last week Allegheny Health Network did a similar event with the J&J vaccine — and gave out 10,000 doses.

“We were planning to schedule another event on the 23rd and 24th but that is on pause now and I know there were a few patients that were scheduled, we will be rescheduling for a pfizer dose,” Dr. Imran Qadeer, chief medical officer Allegheny General Hospital, said.

Thousands of teachers have also received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and they might be concerned after this news.

“I’m hesitant... I don’t know what to do because no one knows,” Priyanka Neupane said. “That happening specifically to a woman, that is concerning.”

Qadeer said those who received the vaccination months ago should be in the clear.

“If you develop symptoms of severe headache abdominal pain leg pain easy bleeding or bruising please call your provider,” he said. “Symptoms develop within the first 6-17 days and so we have not seen any reports after those days.”

He also said the blood clot side effect is extremely rare.

“It’s so rare to have the side effects it’s 6 out of 7 million patients that developed the reaction, I wouldn’t be overly cautious,” he said.

Alison Beam, acting secretary of the health department, said she does not expect this to create issues with availability of appointments because much of the scheduling was relying on Pfizer and Moderna supply.

Delaware had been using some of its allotment to reach homebound and homeless people and said it will switch to using the Moderna vaccine for those programs. A large-scale vaccination site at Delaware County Community College that had been using the J&J vaccine will be relocated and will administer either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, a spokesperson said.

Montgomery County also suspended J&J vaccination clinics. A spokesperson said county officials got a brief message from the state Department of Health at 8 a.m. Tuesday that said, “Please pause vaccine administration of this product until you hear from us. Our medical team is reviewing.”

Separately, the Philadelphia Department of Public Health said vaccine clinics in the city will stop using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine “until we receive further guidance.” Some city clinics were forced to close Tuesday, while others were to be switched to other approved COVID-19 vaccines. Philadelphia gets its allotment directly from the federal government.

A mass vaccination site run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency switched to Pfizer and does not plan to cancel appointments for now, though the city hadn’t yet released details for how those residents will get second doses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration announced that they were investigating rare but potentially dangerous blood clots that occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination. The FDA expected the pause to last a matter of days.

All six cases were in women between the ages of 18 and 48. One person died, and all of the cases remain under investigation.

FDA to pause use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine (NCD)