How Vaccinations Have Changed After Clotting Issues

After reports of clotting in six women who took the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccination Utah placed a pause on administration of the vaccine that started tuesday.

Despite this the quest to administer vaccines to all of those who want them. Intermountain Health care is working to make sure that those who scheduled the J&J Vaccine are able to receive either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine.

I was able to get the Moderna vaccine without having to reschedule. I got my first shot at The orthopedic Specialty Hospital in Murray. It was very quick; the longest part was waiting 15 min after the shot to watch for adverse reactions. The shot itself was also pretty painless; it hurt less than the annual influenza shot.

As the J&J only makes up 130,400 of the 1,956,010 total vaccines delivered as of Tuesday to the state of Utah, the pause should not have a huge impact on people’s ability to receive their vaccinations. It may hurt people’s willingness to get vaccinated.

The most obvious way is that people might not trust the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine over concerns over clotting. They should not worry however as the Pizer and Moderna use a different mechanism to train the immune system to attach the coronavirus. 

Also the J&J is still relatively safe. According to Rich Lakin, the state health department’s immunization director, “[Y]ou need to remember this is only 6 people out of 6.8 million doses given.”

This does not mean that these deaths are not being looked into. Dr. Tamara Sheffield, medical director of preventive medicine at Intermountain Healthcare said, “[The CDC is] still investigating because there are so few numbers of cases. But we want to have this abundance of caution and I’m so glad they’re stopping things to reevaluate and to look for the evidence,”

The second reason that this incident might lower rates of vaccination is that some people opted for the J&J because it is only one shot and is the more traditional disables virus rather than the mRNA used in the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. 

Hopefully Utahns will continue to get vaccinated so that we can return to the normalcy of the precovid era.