All Bay Area Counties Confirm They Have Paused Using Johnson & Johnson Vaccine

All nine Bay Area counties announced Tuesday that they are momentarily halting the use of the Johnson and Johnson coronavirus vaccine after reports of six women in the U.S. experiencing a rare and severe type of blood clot.

Early Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended health providers pause using the vaccine pending a review of the cases expected on Wednesday. The California Department of Public Health followed suit.

The six cases were reported out of the approximate 6.8 million doses of the J&J vaccine that have been administered in the U.S.

KQED reached out to all nine counties in the Bay Area to ask how they are responding to this recommendation. Alameda, Contra Costa, Marin, Napa, San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties all have confirmed that they have paused using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Some have already specified that they will switch over to Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to make up for the gap left behind by J&J.

The San Francisco COVID Command Center released a statement saying that out of the 33,000 doses of the J&J vaccine that the city has administered so far, there are no reported cases of blood clotting.

"As this adverse event is reported to be extremely rare with just over six reported cases nationwide, we do not believe there is cause for immediate alarm," city officials said.

They added that anyone who has received the J&J vaccine should contact their care provider if they experience severe headache, abdominal pain, leg pain or shortness of breath within three weeks after vaccination.

However, some public health experts worry that this may impact counties' efforts to vaccinate communities that are the hardest to reach.

In Marin County, the J&J vaccine made up less than 3% of the doses allotted for this week. But many of those single-dose shots were intended for the county’s homeless population through mobile vaccination sites.

"We'll be using Pfizer instead, which just means that we'll have to be revisiting those sites in a few weeks. And we hope that the same people will be present when we revisit them," said Dr. Matt Willis, public health officer for Marin County.

—Peter Arcuni