The Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) notified all vaccine providers to pause administering doses of the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) vaccine until at least April 20, 2021. This pause applies to Retail Pharmacy Partners (RPP) who were working to schedule vaccine appointments for the Early Childhood Education (ECE) workforce as part of the Special Initiative for Janssen, Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine. With the pause in J&J vaccine distribution and the increased supply of appointments for Moderna and Pfizer, we recommend that child care staff who have not been contacted by a RPP seek alternate sources of vaccine in their community. Please do not wait for a resolution of the J&J vaccine pause to seek out and schedule a vaccine appointment. You can find out more information about vaccine providers in your area by visiting the DOH COVID-19 Vaccine webpage found on the PA DOH website.
Please note that DOH has taken these steps as a precaution until the CDC and FDA have time to review six incidents of rare blood clots that occurred within two weeks of receiving the J&J vaccine. These six cases occurred in women between 18 and 48 who were among the 6.8 million Americans who received the J&J vaccine. This means that the number of these significant adverse reactions is .00009 percent. It is important to realize that this announcement shows that the federal oversight process of a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness is working, and all steps are being taken to protect Americans DOH is closely monitoring the situation and will provide additional information for OCDEL to share as it becomes available.
Please share this information with colleagues and staff who may not receive critical updates from OCDEL through the Pennsylvania Early Ed News.
