Sedgwick County follows state and suspends J&J COVID vaccine

Sedgwick County has put a halt on administering the one-shot Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, officials said Tuesday.

The news follows similar state and federal announcements while federal health authorities “pause” to review six cases of people who developed blood clots within one to three weeks of receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

None of the cases were reported in Kansas. All six were women between the ages of 18 and 48. One woman died and a second has been hospitalized in Nebraska.

“At this time, there is no proof that it is related to the vaccine,” Sedgwick County Health Officer Dr. Garold Minns said at a Tuesday morning news conference. “But the FDA and CDC are wanting to investigate these cases thoroughly before proceeding with any additional (Johnson & Johnson) vaccinations.”

Minns said the potential side effects of the vaccine appear to be “extremely rare.” Those experiencing headaches, abdominal pain, shortness of breath within three weeks of receiving the Johnson & Johnson shot should contact their primary physicians, Minns said.

About 2,600 people in Sedgwick County were scheduled to receive Johnson & Johnson vaccines this week, health officials said Tuesday. Those people will be offered a two-shot Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine instead. Several other local clinics offer another two-shot vaccine by Moderna.

“The Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine have not been associated with any cases like this, and the strong recommendation is to go ahead and get one of those two vaccines while we are in this phase pausing the J and J vaccine,” Minns said.

Adrienne Byrne, Sedgwick County’s health director, said she was “pleasantly surprised” by the response at the county’s clinic at the former Central Public Library in downtown Wichita.

“So far people have been great,” she said. “Some are disappointed but still choosing to come in and get vaccinated. ... People really have held out for Johnson & Johnson but are willing to get vaccinated because they want that coverage.”

Mark Smith, 63, of Wichita was leaving the old library just before noon Tuesday after getting his first Pfizer dose. He was scheduled to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

“Part of it was the one dose,” he said about wanting the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. “Part of it was the technology they’re using based on the old virus technology. I thought it might be safer, but apparently not.”

His wife, who didn’t wait for a Johnson & Johnson, was getting her second Pfizer dose Tuesday, he said. He said he felt the need to get the vaccine because his mother-in-law lives with them and the virus is more likely to result in dire outcomes for older people.

“Hopefully everybody just gets it,” he said. “All of them have been proven fairly safe.”

The Johnson & Johnson rollout has been mired in uncertainty.

Officials initially touted the single-dose vaccine as a potential “game changer,” an effective and convenient vaccine that could be more easily stored and used to quickly vaccinate at least 100 million people.

In the Wichita area, appointments for the initial Johnson & Johnson vaccines have filled within hours while appointments for the Pfizer vaccine remain open throughout the week. Byrne has said many remain skeptical of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines but are open to receiving the Johnson & Johnson.

Last month the company had to throw out 15 million doses after a mix-up at the Baltimore-based Emergent BioSolutions Inc plant that had been manufacturing the vaccine for Johnson & Johnson.

The pause in delivering Johnson & Johnson shots comes as Sedgwick County struggles to convince eligible populations to get a shot. The vaccine has been open to anyone 16 or older for weeks, but only 22.8% of the county’s adult population has been fully vaccinated, according to data reported by the CDC, a far cry from the approximately 80% needed to achieve herd immunity.

“Just as important as getting vaccines into arms — is making sure those vaccines are safe,” Gov. Laura Kelly said in a news release. “While this appears to have affected six people in the nearly seven million doses administered, out of an abundance of caution, Kansas will suspend Johnson and Johnson until the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration) clear it for use again. In the meantime, we anticipate our shipments of Pfizer and Moderna to continue and we will build on the one-third of Kansans who have already received their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.”

This story was originally published April 13, 2021 at 10:10 AM.