Alameda County Will Pause Administration of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Per State, Federal Recommendations
Residents who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in recent weeks should monitor for symptoms; those who received this vaccine more than a month ago are at very low risk of adverse effects.
(This information is being shared on behalf of
the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency)
ALAMEDA COUNTY, CA – Today the CDC and the FDA jointly announced that, out of an abundance of caution, the two agencies recommend pausing administration of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine. This recommendation is made while the CDC and FDA investigate six reported U.S cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J & J vaccine. All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination, and one death has been reported. To date, 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered in the US.
Per state and federal recommendations, Alameda County will suspend administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until state and federal authorities determine it is safe to begin administering the vaccine again.
Alameda County will cancel existing J&J appointments or reschedule them as appointments for a two-dose vaccination series using either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, based on available supply. We will share more information as the situation evolves.
While adverse effects from the J & J vaccine appear to be extremely rare, people who have received the J&J vaccine should monitor themselves for severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination. If you experience any of these symptoms, please contact your health care provider immediately.
Health care providers are asked to report adverse events to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) at
https://vaers.hhs.gov/reportevent.html. The current episode demonstrates the importance of VAERS and how it is used to support vaccine safety.
To date, COVD-19 has directly resulted in the deaths of 559,172 people in the United States and almost 3 million people worldwide. Safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines will continue to be a critical part of the effort to end the pandemic.
