J&J Vaccine Problems Pause Nassau's Home-Bound Inoculation Plan

NASSAU COUNTY, NY — Nassau County officials announced today that, due to recommendations from the CDC and FDA, it would be pausing the administration of the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine. The decision will only affect a handful of appointments scheduled for today, but it is putting the county's plan to inoculate home-bound populations and inmates on hold.

The CDC and FDA recommended all administrations of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine be put on pause after it possibly linked to blood clot issues in six women. The state said it would comply, and Nassau County is following suit. Nationwide, more than 6 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered.

According to Nassau officials, the county has only administered a small number of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations. The state had been administering the vaccine at its distribution site at Nassau Coliseum for a few days. According to county Health Commissioner Dr. Lawrence Eisenstein, of the more than 600,000 vaccinations of county residents, only 1 or 2 percent were Johnson & Johnson.

"There's no reason to panic," Eisenstein said. "We're still talking about something that's literally less than one in a million doses."

Nassau was scheduled to administer doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at Nassau Coliseum today. Those appointments are being kept, but the county will be administering the Moderna vaccine instead. Today would have been the last day of Johnson & Johnson vaccinations at the Coliseum. County officials said that, due to the recent distribution issue with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it was not allotted to receive any doses this week.

The pause, however, will affect the county's plan to vaccinate home-bound residents. The county was training its police EMTs to administer the vaccine, and was planning to use the Johnson & Johnson vaccine since it only requires one shot. The Pfizer or Moderna inoculations could still be used, but they each require two doses, which means a second trip for medics for each resident they vaccinate.

"The home-bound program is going to have to wait, depending on what happens with the federal government and what they say about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine," said Nassau County Executive Laura Curran.

The county was also going to use the Johnson & Johnson shot to vaccinate inmates at the county's correctional facility. Those plans are also on hold for now.

Eisenstein stressed that a pause in the rollout of a new vaccine is nothing unusual, and happens routinely with new vaccines. He said it means the monitoring systems that are in place are working.

"This should bring comfort about the protections we have in place when we roll out new vaccines," he said.