CA 'On Track' To Get 320k Johnson & Johnson Vaccines Next Week

CALIFORNIA — A third vaccine is expected to help the battle against the coronavirus in California next week when the state anticipates receiving some 320,000 of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson vaccines, a spokesperson for the Department of Public Health told Patch Wednesday.

That number is about 60,000 fewer than Gov. Gavin Newsom previously said he projected to receive this week.

The spokesperson from the state's health department — who spoke to Patch under the condition of anonymity — said the state was "on track" to receive the doses of J&J next week.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration swiftly authorized the use of Johnson & Johnson's single-dose vaccine on Saturday. By Wednesday, a review of the single-dose vaccine's safety was completed by the Western State Scientific Safety Review Workgroup.

"We now have three remarkable vaccines that offer 100 percent protection from death and hospitalizations," Newsom said in a statement on Wednesday.

The Western States Workgroup reported that there were no coronavirus-related deaths that occurred during the vaccine's review, making it a formidable resource in preventing severe disease.

Several health experts voiced an urgency to authorize the vaccine quickly and for people to get vaccinated as new coronavirus variants continue to spread across the country.

"We need to put a real push on [getting vaccinated] because we're really racing with this virus," Dr. John Swartzberg, a professor of vaccinology and infectious diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, told Patch in a February interview. "The virus is going to continue to produce mutants as long as it can find a susceptible host."

The vaccine will join the Moderna and Pfizer products in the Golden State's inoculation lineup, although there are a couple of benefits that make Johnson & Johnson more accessible.

The J&J vaccine does not require ultra-cold storage, and it is just a single shot.

Data suggested that the J&J vaccine was effective against coronavirus variants and that it reduced asymptomatic infections, according to the Western States Workgroup's review.

But the workgroup noted that information about the duration of protection induced by the vaccine was still limited. Overall, the group deemed the vaccine safe and said it was able to provide "excellent" protection against severe bouts of COVID-19 that could otherwise lead to hospitalization or death.

The dose was reportedly 66.9 percent effective against coronavirus infections globally at least 14 days after vaccination, according to data released by the FDA Wednesday. In the U.S., the vaccine was 72 percent effective.

While the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are around 95 percent effective overall, experts have said people shouldn't be concerned about Johnson & Johnson's product as the shot was found to be 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease and death.

"It's important that people do not think that one vaccine is better than another," Dr. Cody Meissner of Tufts University told The Associated Press last week.

How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California

As more vaccination centers open up across the state, Newsom has repeatedly lamented that the vaccine rollout has been hampered by limited supply.

"Sites all across the state of California are toggling back based upon limited supply," Newsom said previously. "That's a manufacturing issue. Manufactured supply in the United States of America is limited."

With the addition of the J&J product, Newsom estimated last week that the state could receive more than 300,000 vaccines "predictably over the next three weeks."

But officials warned that March would be a challenging month.

The state has received more and more doses from the federal government each week, and vaccines are arriving as the state continues to widen its eligibility pool to essential workers such as teachers, food service workers, farmworkers, law enforcement and so on.

With the addition of Johnson and Johnson, Newsom has said that the dosage deficit in California could start to improve by the end of March and early April.

"We're going to start seeing things really ramp up," Newsom said last month. "May, June, July: game changer. All of a sudden we're at a completely different level."

President Joe Biden upped the ante on Tuesday, announcing that there would be enough vaccines for every adult in the United States by the end of May — a major acceleration of the vaccine timeline that's been presented thus far.

Biden did not guarantee that those doses would all be administered by the end of May, but he and Newsom have both said that the supply would start to ramp up in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Blue Shield embarked on its mission to streamline the state's muddled rollout this week. By the end of the month, eligibility criteria for the vaccine will reportedly be leveled across all of the Golden State's 58 counties under the insurer's watch.

The state's rollout has been marred by confusion and frustration among Californians attempting to make appointments and grasp eligibility requirements between the state and county levels.

Going forward, Blue Shield will make recommendations on how many doses each county will get and who will get them based on benchmarks set by the state. The insurance giant began Monday by implementing changes in 10 counties within the Central Valley, Imperial and Riverside counties.

Beginning Sunday, Blue Shield will add the rest of the state's counties until it has caught up by March 31.

Eventually, residents in each county will be able to make an appointment to get vaccinated only through the state's scheduling website, MyTurn, or on its phone line, 833-422-4255.

California has been administering about 1.4 million vaccines weekly, but officials aim to bring that up to 4 million per week by the end of April. The state had administered 9,458,722 doses as of Wednesday, according to state data.

As cases continue to fall, the state's seven-day positivity rate has plummeted to 2.6 percent over a 14-day period.

"Things are moving in the right direction, things seem to be stabilizing," Newsom said at a news conference on Monday. "We're seeing vaccinations increase, we're seeing the positivity in case rates decrease."

Read more about coronavirus and vaccines from Patch California:

• CA's Vaccine Rollout Is Revamped Again: What To Know
• Back To School: CA Lawmakers Reach Deal For In-Class Instruction
• CA Could Get 1.1M Johnson & Johnson Vaccines In The Next 3 Weeks
• How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California
• When Will CA's Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Improve?
• 5 CA Variant, Vaccine Questions: What You Need To Know
• 90k Vaccinations Could Be Canceled In NorCal Amid Dosage Deficit