UNC Health, Wake to resume Johnson & Johnson vaccine after CDC reports no safety issues
UNC Health and Wake County will both resume using the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded late Thursday that there are no safety issues with the vaccine.
“We’re confident in the safety and efficacy of the J&J vaccine,” Alan Wolf, a UNC Health spokesman, told The News & Observer. UNC Health will resume its use of the vaccine on Saturday.
UNC Health and Wake County Public Health temporarily stopped using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Thursday after several people experienced adverse reactions like dizziness or fainting at their vaccination sites.
Wake County will begin using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine again as early as Monday, according to Stacy Beard, a county spokeswoman. The county conducted an internal review on Friday that included interviews, reviewing vaccine-handling data and reading patient records from the 18 people who reported reactions on Friday.
“The evaluation showed no common correlation between incidents other than they happened in the same hour-and-a-half time frame at the outdoor drive-thru clinic,” Beard wrote in an email to The News & Observer.
Beard also said that Wake County’s lots are different from the lots that were being used at other sites where there were similar reactions, including clinics in Colorado, Georgia and Iowa.
“Nobody had the same lot,” Beard said, “so they couldn’t trace it back to the manufacturer and again all the symptoms shared with us were consistent with J&J.”
Beginning Saturday, staff at UNC Health’s clinics will ask people receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine if they have a history of fainting or a fear of needles, Wolf said. People with that history will be able to recline after taking the shot, will not be moved to a separate observation area, and will receive drinks or snacks.
Dr. David Wohl, who helps lead UNC Health’s vaccination clinic at the Friday Center, said Thursday that he believes the number of reported incidents with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could mean that people who are taking it are more likely to have a fear of needles. The vaccine only requires one shot to be fully effective, while the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines need two shots.
Wake County officials do not plan to take similar steps yet, Ryan Jury, who oversees vaccine operations for the county health department, told The News & Observer. But the county plans to continue monitoring the reactions people report having after taking the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and will likely use the shot at smaller-scale events to ensure resources are available for anyone who does suffer a reaction.
“We want to make sure that when individuals get vaccinated they can have confidence that they’re getting vaccinated in a setting that is ready to respond if there are adverse reactions,” Jury said.
‘This is just how my body reacted’
Meredith Kelleher signed up to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at PNC Arena on Thursday because she has a history of fainting after shots.
”I just don’t like them,” Kelleher, a Raleigh resident, told The News & Observer on Friday. “I prefer to have the one and done.”
Kelleher was among the four people taken to the hospital Thursday after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the PNC Arena site. She had an appointment for noon and drove to a nearby recovery parking lot after receiving her shot. Staff there told her to honk her horn if there were any problems.
A short time later, Kelleher said, “I got hot and sweaty and my vision started to go. Luckily, I remembered to honk my horn.”
Paramedics were immediately by Kelleher’s side, she recounted, and hooked her up to an IV and EKG machine. Kelleher had a low heart rate, which was why paramedics took her to the hospital.
She was discharged a short time later.
The last time Kelleher fainted after receiving a shot was 13 years ago, after receiving a steroid. But it was a frequent event when she was younger.
“My dad used to carry smelling salts with him because when I was a a kid, I passed out frequently,” Kelleher said. “Like, when I got my ears pierced, I passed out.”
After leaving UNC Rex Hospital Thursday evening, Kelleher and her husband returned to the PNC lot to retrieve her car. When she woke up Friday, Kelleher did not have any side effects other than a sore arm.
Kelleher said she is totally comfortable with her decision to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and would tell others that they should not lose confidence in it because of Thursday’s events.
The reaction, Kelleher emphasized, was to the needle rather than to the vaccine.
“I am 100% certain that this would have happened with any type of needle whether it be a needle filled with glitter, a needle filled with gold,” she said. “This is just how my body reacted.”
Thursday’s adverse reactions
At UNC’s Hillsborough Hospital, people who were initially scheduled to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on Friday will be offered the Moderna vaccine, according to a UNC Health press release.
Thursday, between five and 10 people felt dizzy or lightheaded after receiving the vaccine at the Friday Center site, UNC officials told The N&O. Another 17 people felt lightheaded or dizzy or fainted at Wake County’s PNC Arena drive-thru site, where there was also one allergic reaction.
Wake County administered more than 2,300 doses of the Johhnson & Johnson vaccine on Thursday, while UNC Health has given more than 2,200 shots this week.
That means that about 0.6% of people who received the J&J shot at the PNC Arena site or UNC Health clinics in Orange County experienced immediate side effects.
Wake County Public Health has administered the vaccine at 23 different events, Jury said, without any serious incidents until Thursday.
“We feel confident that the vaccine is safe and will be effective at treating and preventing COVID,” Jury said.
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This story was originally published April 9, 2021 at 10:59 AM.