Statewide Iowa — The Iowa Department of Public Health is putting a hold on the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
The move by the state health department comes after the Centers for Disease Control or “CDC” and the FDA announced they are reviewing data involving six reported US cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in people who received the J&J vaccine. Federal officials say the adverse events appear to be extremely rare. The CDC and FDA plan to provide additional information later. Iowa has used part of its allocations of the one-dose J&J vaccine for college students in an effort to get them vaccinated before the end of the semester.
The O’Brien County Public Health Department had scheduled a mass vaccination clinic at the Crossroads Pavilion in Sheldon on Thursday, April 15th. The vaccine to be administered at this mass vaccination clinic was to have been the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Due to this new information, the O’Brien County Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine clinic scheduled for April 15th has been canceled.
O’Brien County Public Health is still planning to conduct the 2nd dose vaccine clinic for the Moderna vaccine on April 15th. If there are individuals that are interested in receiving the Moderna vaccine (1st dose) on April 15th, they are asked to contact the O’Brien County Public Health at 712-957-0105.
Osceola County Health Services gave out 120 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine last week, and many doses of the vaccine have been administered by Sioux County health officials including several hundred doses of the J&J vaccine to plant workers last month. Governor Reynolds and her husband Kevin also received the J&J vaccine at the beginning of March.
Mayo Clinic experts are telling us that this rare blood clotting reaction has occurred in 6 people out of nearly 7 million people who have received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The six cases involved women between ages 18 and 48 and occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination.
Mayo experts say that if you have received the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine in the last three weeks and are experiencing unexplained new severe symptoms after 72 hours and up to three weeks after vaccination, such as new severe headaches, leg pain, abdominal pain or shortness of breath, you should seek emergency care. But they remind people that experiencing mild to moderate headache and muscle aches are common in the first 3 days after vaccination and do not require emergency care. They also say that evidence of this rare clotting disorder has not been reported in either the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
O’Brien County Public Health advises people to report adverse events following receipt of any COVID-19 vaccine online by clicking here.
They tell us that if you are scheduled to receive the J&J vaccine, you should contact your healthcare provider, vaccination location, or clinic to learn about additional vaccine availability.
Joint CDC and FDA Statement on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine
