Virginia vaccine supply will take substantial hit next week due to Johnson & Johnson shortage
Virginia’s coronavirus vaccine supply will be dealt a blow next week, following a factory mixing problem that ruined 15 million doses of Johnson & Johnson’s shots.
Instead of receiving the expected 125,000 doses from the maker, the state will get just 15,000 next week, said Dr. Parham Jaberi, Virginia Department of Health’s chief deputy commissioner for public health preparedness.
The state will still receive a combined 200,000 Moderna and Pfizer doses, which will help keep COVID-19 vaccination efforts on track, public health officials say, along with separate supplies that are going directly to federally run clinics and retail pharmacies. But what the Johnson & Johnson shortage likely will do is impact the state’s plans to run clinics geared for colleges and universities before graduations.
“We’re going to be working with them to see what other alternatives there are,” said Jaberi, the new acting director for Norfolk and Virginia Beach’s health districts. “It’s a matter of a strategic shift.”
The J&J vaccine, sometimes referred to as the one-and-done shot, has been considered a critical tool in upending the pandemic around the world because it only requires one injection, rather than two. The drug can be shipped and stored at standard fridge temperatures, and the company has pledged to sell the vaccine without a profit during the public health crisis.
Last week it was unclear how the mix-up would affect future J&J deliveries. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the quality control problem did not affect any of the maker’s doses on the market, and officials still anticipated 100 million J&J doses by the end of May.
As of Thursday, about 1.64 million Virginians have been fully vaccinated, representing just over 19% of the population. More than one-third of state residents have received at least one dose. On average, nearly 78,000 people are getting shots daily statewide. Those figures don’t include the 237,000 Virginians who have been vaccinated through federal sources, such as the military and Veterans Administration.
Virginia public health officials say that regardless of the dip next week, they don’t anticipate supply to be a long-term problem. The federal government has assured them and other states’ leaders the manufacturer will be able to catch up on production. Dr. Danny Avula, state vaccination coordinator, speculated the company could make up production with the help of some of its pharmaceutical partners, such as Merck.
Federal officials also have told state leaders the J&J issue would not impact the company’s target for April, somewhere in the neighborhood of 24 million doses. For the state’s share of the lot, that would translate into enough supplies to inoculate half a million Virginians.
In the meantime, Virginia is working with local health departments to find other ways to vaccinate faculty and staff at higher education institutes. One week ago, they didn’t know the extent of the J&J setback, but they were already considering contingency plans.
A huge drop-off would likely push back their efforts by a week or two, Avula said during a call with reporters last Friday.
“We’ve been meeting with the state associations of public and private universities and colleges,” he said then, “mapping out their timeline before graduation and just making sure that we can slot them in in closed pods so that they can vaccinate their populations in the coming weeks.”
Elisha Sauers, elisha.sauers@pilotonline.com, 757-839-4754
