J&J Vaccine Pause May Delay Fairfield Home Bound Program

FAIRFIELD, CT — The nationwide recommended pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccines won’t affect Fairfield’s vaccination clinics, but it may cause a slight delay for the town’s home bound vaccine program.

The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control advised Tuesday morning that J&J coronavirus vaccinations be paused after six women aged 18 to 48 experienced cerebral blood clots following the vaccine. Just under 7 million J&J doses have been administered in the United States.

Fairfield’s Health Department clinics use the Moderna vaccine, according to sanitarian Amy Lehaney, but the home bound program had been using J&J since the single-shot option was approved in March.

“The Fairfield Health Department, along with the Connecticut DPH, take vaccine safety very seriously,” Lehaney said in an email. “Though the reported events are extremely rare, we will be pausing any distribution of the vaccine until the FDA/CDC complete their studies on these events.”

Hartford HealthCare distributed 300 J&J doses March 13 at its vaccine megasite on Sacred Heart University’s West Campus, but has otherwise used two-dose vaccines, according to Tiffany Rodrigues, director of initiative integration for St. Vincent’s Medical Center in Bridgeport, a Hartford HealthCare facility. The pause on J&J is not expected to affect the Sacred Heart site moving forward.

“We have adjusted our vaccine distribution in every one of our vaccines clinics to provide only Pfizer and Moderna products,” Dr. James Cardon, Hartford HealthCare’s chief clinical integration officer, said Tuesday in a news release. “As always, safety is our first priority and we immediately followed the guidance of federal health agencies while the health concerns with J&J are being thoroughly investigated.”

Yale New Haven Health, which operates a Fairfield vaccine site at Northeast Medical Group, 501 Kings Highway East, announced Tuesday it had paused use of the J&J vaccine and substituted Pfizer or Moderna at its vaccination locations. The health provider was unable to immediately clarify whether the pause would affect vaccinations at the Fairfield site.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday the J&J pause was no cause for alarm and that those who had already received the vaccine had a “one-in-a-million chance” of suffering from cerebral clots. Lamont estimated the pause would last less than a week and would not hurt the state’s vaccine rollout, adding that dose supply is expected to outpace demand before the end of April and advising providers to keep the J&J doses they have.

To date, around 100,000 Connecticut residents have received the J&J vaccine with no reported adverse reactions, according to the state Department of Public Health.

Connecticut Chief Operating Officer Josh Geballe said there will "likely will be some cancellations" for residents who have appointments for J&J vaccines scheduled in the very near future, but providers are working to reschedule these using Moderna or Pfizer.

The CDC will convene a meeting Wednesday of its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices to further review the cases. The FDA will review that analysis as it also investigates these cases.