JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The FEMA-run vaccination site at the Gateway Mall will stop distributing the Johnson and Johnson vaccine after the CDC and the FDA has recommended a pause in distribution.
The Gateway Mall and the Oceanway Community and Carver Recreation centers will immediately pause the use of Johnson and Johnson vaccines.
“FEMA is committed to helping the President’s goal to ensure everyone who wants to be vaccinated can be. In alignment with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration’s recommendation to pause the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, effective immediately FEMA will stop administering this vaccine at our pilot Community Vaccination Clinics, as well as via our Mobile Vaccine Units. We are working with our state partners to determine the path forward and find alternative vaccine options for these sites,” Acting FEMA Administrator Bob Fenton said in a statement.
Second doses of Pfizer are still being provided at the Gateway site. The state-run Regency site distributes only the Pfizer vaccine.
Agape Health, the healthcare agency that run the vaccination efforts at Edward Waters College and the pop-up sites with JTA, has also announced they will stop the distribution of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
The mobile pop-up vaccination site at the Jacksonville Lutheran Social Services has also been cancelled due to the recommended pause.
The pause comes after six cases “of a rare and severe type of blood clot” occurred in individuals who received the single-dose vaccine in the United States, according to the FDA. More than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine have been administered in the country so far.
“Right now, these adverse events appear to be extremely rare,” the FDA statement read, adding that “treatment of this specific type of blood clot is different from the treatment that might typically be administered.”