COLUMBUS – Governor Mike DeWine and health officials remained optimistic about the state’s vaccine distribution plan even as providers and some college campuses suspended using the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine Tuesday while federal officials investigate six reports of potentially dangerous blood clots.
DeWine and leading health officials reassured the public that the vaccine is considered effective and the cases of serious side effects are very rare.
“Six cases out of 6.8 million doses is almost by definition the needle in the haystack,” said Dr. Andy Thomas, chief medical officer at OSU Wexner Medical Center, during a televised briefing Tuesday.
“Nothing should surprise us during this pandemic. We’ve had a lot of twists and turns,” DeWine said.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel is expected to meet Wednesday to review data gathered on the six cases of severe blood clots between the ages of 18 and 48. One person died.
The discovery of the cases prompted the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration to pause the use of the single-dose vaccine.
“The fact that people making those decisions are following what the evidence is and, not only that but they’re making it public. That is what I think should give people confidence” in the vaccination process, DeWine said.
In Ohio, 264,311 doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered, the vast majority causing no or mild side effects.
The state was mainly directing the single-dose J&J vaccine to mass vaccination clinics and to its 63 public and private 4-year colleges and universities, most of which have already completed their student vaccinations.
Of the mass vaccination and university clinics that did plan to offer the Johnson and Johnson vaccine this week, most will proceed with their clinics by offering either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine while a total of eight sites will not offer any vaccines this week.
Columbus Public Health announced Tuesday that it would offer only the Pfizer vaccine at its Celeste Center vaccination center until further notice. The agency has about 7,000 doses of the J&J vaccine on hand and health director Dr. Mysheika Roberts says they can be stored until May or June.
Roberts, Thomas and DeWine encourage Ohioans who were expecting to receive the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to make appointments to get the Pfizer or Moderna shots and those vaccines would be available for appointments already scheduled.
Before the use of the J&J vaccine was suspended, 2.7 million Ohioans had completed their vaccine regimens, or 23.15% of the state’s total population.
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There were 2,340 new cases of COVID-19 reported in Ohio Tuesday as a rise in cases continues. An average of 26.2 people have been admitted to Ohio hospitals each day since April 3, including 167 Tuesday. There were 1,281 Ohioans being treated in hospitals for the coronavirus.
A total of 1,043,729 Ohioans have been diagnosed with the disease since the pandemic began with 54, 334 hospitalized, and 18,917 people have died.
The state’s seven-day average positivity rate was 4.6% and the number of active cases had increased to 39,022.