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State Health Department Asks All Oklahoma Sites To Stop Giving Johnson & Johnson COVID Vaccine

Johnson & Johnson

The Oklahoma State Department of Health on Tuesday asked all vaccine sites across the state to immediately stop giving doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

Earlier Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended pausing use of the single-dose vaccine while an investigation is conducted into reports of apparently rare, potentially dangerous blood clots.

"Out of an abundance of caution, we have asked all of our vaccine sites to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine immediately while we gather more information," Health Commissioner Dr. Lance Frye said in a statement. "This type of potential adverse reaction following administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is extremely rare and has occurred in less than one in every million recipients. However, the health and safety of Oklahomans remains our top priority."

Six cases of blood clot complications have been reported nationwide out of roughly 7 million doses of Johnson & Johnson vaccine. All cases were in women 18 to 48 years old, and symptoms occurred within two weeks of receiving the vaccine.

Oklahomans who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and develop severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, or shortness of breath within three weeks of vaccination should contact their health care provider. 

For Oklahomans who already have scheduled appointments for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the state health department is working with those providers to offer Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as alternatives. Providers that currently don’t have Pfizer or Moderna vaccines will contact people to reschedule.

"We have plenty of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccine on hand to ensure that every Oklahoman who wants a vaccine can get one," Deputy Health Commissioner Keith Reed said in a statement. "We have no reason to believe any Oklahomans have been affected by this rare response, but will continue to collect information and work closely with our partners to ensure Oklahomans are safe."

According to the state health department, Oklahoma has administered 62,000 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to date. OSDH expects to have more than 500,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccine after next week’s allocation comes in.

At a previously scheduled virtual press conference hosted by the Healthier Oklahoma Coalition Tuesday afternoon, experts stressed that while the stated reason for the "pause" is not insignificant, it's important to consider the news in perspective.

"Somebody in Oklahoma is 100 times more likely to die in a car crash than to get a blood clot from the J & J vaccine, and also an unvaccinated person in Oklahoma is more than ten times as likely to die from COVID as to get in a car crash," said OU epidemiologist Dr. Aaron Wendelboe.

"Keep this in perspective," said Dr. Dale Bratzler, OU Health chief COVID officer. "In Oklahoma, if a million people got COVID, we would expect to see about 50,000 or over of those people to be hospitalized with COVID. Less than one person out of a million has had the blood clots from the first 7,000,000 doses of the J & J vaccine."

A CDC advisory committee will meet Wednesday to evaluate the reported blood clots. The FDA will review their analysis.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.
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