Underserved communities bear brunt of paused Johnson & Johnson rollout

[Eugene]

Earlier DU threads:
• UPDATE: U.S. Calls for Pause on Johnson & Johnson Vaccine After Clotting Cases
• Pause in Vaccinations Leads to Canceled Appointments Across States

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Source: Washington Post

Underserved communities bear brunt of paused Johnson & Johnson rollout

Clinics offering the one-shot vaccine were canceled throughout the country, affecting students, shift workers, rural residents and other hard-to-reach groups

By Isaac Stanley-Becker
April 14, 2021 at 8:13 a.m. EDT

Mobile clinics serving a rural expanse north of Columbus, Ohio. A program sending paramedics to vaccinate homebound seniors in Chicago. And sites promising immunization at 34 public colleges and universities throughout New York.

Thousands of people can no longer rely on these initiatives, all casualties of Tuesday’s decision by federal health officials to recommend a pause in the use of Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine. The pause was initiated so experts could review data involving a severe type of blood clot found among six of the more than 7 million people who have received the vaccine in the United States, and so the federal government could advise clinicians about how to identify and treat the possible adverse reaction.

Because the single-shot option is favored for transient and hard-to-reach populations, the pause’s most immediate cost was exacted on those with the fewest other options. That includes students, rural residents and people involved in shift work, throwing a new hurdle in front of the Biden administration’s efforts to introduce greater equity into the nation’s vaccination campaign. The places best able to address the change were those with abundant vaccine supply, newly underscoring the uneven nature of the rollout.

“We have to scramble a little bit to make sure no one is left behind,” said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu (R), whose state has been vaccinating residents at a faster clip than most others. The single-shot vaccine has been key to that rapid pace, he said, but deploying it to homebound residents and the homeless population is just as critical to aims of equity.

Sununu pressed White House officials during a call with governors Tuesday to present more of the data informing the government’s recommendation, saying the move threatened to undermine confidence in the shots just as the immunization effort was accelerating, according to two people who participated in the call. “Pausing is in many ways easy to do,” Sununu said in an interview afterward. “The challenge we’re going to have is reinstalling that public trust, hopefully in a matter of days when they give the all-clear.”

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2021/04/14/johnson-johnson-vaccine-pause-whos-affected/

[rampartc]

1. i would rather that than risk it

perhaps more pfizer and moderna can be shifted to these communities?

[Midnight Writer]

2. The J&J vaccine was the only one reliably available in my area.

Supplies of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been spotty, with any available appointments immediately filled.

I got the J&J vaccine last week.