Sonoma County halts use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

Sonoma County today put a temporary halt on the use of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine by order of the state health department.

“California is following the FDA and CDC’s recommendation and has directed health care providers to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine until we receive further direction from health and safety experts, ” according to today’s statement from the CDPH.

The state-wide stoppage will have a minimal effect regionally, according to County spokesman Matt Brown. “Out of 362,000 doses administered in Sonoma County, about 11,000 have been J&J, so it is a small portion of our overall supply.”

The move was made “out of an abundance of caution,” she said. Of over 6.8 million doses administered nationally, there have been six reported cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot with symptoms occurring 6 to 13 days after vaccination.

The state said it does not expect a significant impact on vaccination allocations. In California, less than 4% of vaccine allocation this week is the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The joint CDC and FDA statement can be found here.