North Texas At-Home And In-Person COVID Vaccination Events Canceled Because Of Johnson & Johnson 'Pause'
What To Do If You Received Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) — Officials in the city of Dallas have cancelled the start of a Meals on Wheels, COVID-19 vaccine effort due to concerns over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and new directives from the Centers for Disease Control.
The City of Dallas and the Visiting Nurses Association of Texas (VNA) were scheduled to start in-home vaccinations on April 13. But early Tuesday morning the FDA and CDC recommended pausing use of the vaccine. Officials said they made the decision out of an abundance of caution after six incidents of blood clotting happened in patients who'd received the vaccine.
Based on that guidance, the City chose to pause its in-home vaccine roll out until further notice.
A joint CDC and FDA statement said, in part --
"As of April 12, more than 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen ) vaccine have been administered in the U.S. CDC and FDA are reviewing data involving six reported U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine. In these cases, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia). All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination."
In addition to the Dallas at-home program, the Arlington Fire Department announced it would stop administering the J&J vaccine at AT&T Stadium. The location will only administer second doses of the Pfizer vaccine until further notice.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the J&J vaccine will also be pulled at the Fair Park distribution site.
Today, we were scheduled to give J&J @fairpark however due to adverse side effects in other places, we will stop using it while @CDCgov @US_FDA examines safety issues. Today, we will open at 9am and begin the day with 1500 @moderna_tx then switch to @pfizer once thawed.
— Clay Jenkins (@JudgeClayJ) April 13, 2021
The City of Garland Health Department also canceled Tuesday's mass vaccination event at Johnson Stadium (originally scheduled for 1 to 3 p.m.) because it was set to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.