In response to today’s recommendation from the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to pause administration of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccines due to an extremely rare condition reported in six individuals nationwide (none of which are known to be linked to Massachusetts), the Department of Public Health has directed all providers to immediately pause administration of the J&J vaccine until federal health experts investigate this matter. The pause gives the time for scientists to better understand what has transpired. According to the CDC, more than 192 million vaccine (first and second) doses have been administered nationwide, including over 6.8M doses of J&J vaccine. We will post more information here as it becomes available. Individuals who have received a J&J vaccine and have concerns should contact their primary care provider.
As Manet sidelines the J&J vaccine, our vaccine clinics remain open and ready to serve with our supplies of the two-dose Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which use a different technology to produce immunity and has not had any reported significant safety concerns.
Vaccination remains our best protection against COVID-19!