Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Pause: What It Means For NYC

NEW YORK CITY — A precautionary pause on Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccinations will affect thousands of New York City dwellers slotted to receive the single-dose vaccine.

Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Tuesday the city will follow CDC and FDA advice to halt using the vaccine until six reported blood clot complications — out of nearly 7 million doses administered — are investigated.

The city has much work ahead to make adjustments while the pause is in effect, he said.

"Our vaccine command centers are now coordinating new appointments for everyone scheduled for today and the coming days for Johnson & Johnson," he said. "So everyone who was scheduled to come to one of our centers will get a new appointment obviously with a Moderna or Pfizer vaccine for the foreseeable future."

Is it safe?

FDA and CDC officials announced the recommended pause Tuesday out of "an abundance of caution."

The vast majority of people who received the vaccine — 6.8 million — have suffered no serious or life-threatening side effects.

But federal health officials want time to study what happened with six women who received the vaccine and suffered a severe blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis. The side effect is exceedingly rare but requires providers to know about the risk.

"Treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered," the FDA tweeted.

About 234,000 New Yorkers across the city have so far received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, said Dave Chokshi, the city's health commissioner.

Of those New Yorkers, none have shown signs of the blood clot, Chokski said.

"We continue to monitor for that, of course, in coordination with our federal partners, but we have not seen that," he said.

Chokshi and de Blasio are among the 234,000 New Yorkers who received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

New Yorkers shouldn't think the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is unsafe because of the pause, Jay Varma, the city's senior health adviser said. The pause is akin to a smoke alarm going off, he said — a one-in-a-million occurrence doesn't mean everyone's house is burning down.

"The reason that the CDC needs to meet this week is not because we think that the vaccine is risky, but we need to decide how this vaccine should be used, what we should tell doctors, what we should tell patients because there may be a very, very small risk," he said. "But again it's critically important for people to understand that this is a sign of how we evaluate our systems, how we detect and respond to things. and we're always going to use the best evidence. And the best evidence indicates that vaccines work."

What about people slated to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?

The city leaned heavily on the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for its homebound seniors vaccination program, a mobile vaccination bus and other efforts reaching people for whom it'd be more difficult to do a two-shot inoculation.

De Blasio said the homebound seniors program will be suspended for now.

Other appointments at city-run sites will be honored, if they have to occur at a later date, Chokshi said.

"It’s on the order of about 4,000 appointments that have to be rescheduled today," he said.

But New Yorkers were more likely to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at a state-run mass vaccination site like the Javits Center.

State officials said people scheduled for Johnson & Johnson appointments will receive other vaccines.

"IMPORTANT: If you have an appointment TODAY at a State-run mass vaccination site for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you will be offered the Pfizer vaccine instead," Gov. Andrew Cuomo tweeted. "You do NOT need to cancel your appointment."

IMPORTANT: If you have an appointment TODAY at a State-run mass vaccination site for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, you will be offered the Pfizer vaccine instead. You do NOT need to cancel your appointment.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) April 13, 2021

But while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine proved desirable for New Yorkers seeking a "one-and-done" dose, its supply in the city never reached the levels of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Roughly 4.95 million out of 5.1 million total coronavirus vaccine doses given in New York City were either Moderna or Pfizer, according to city data.

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