The University of Michigan’s vaccine clinics scheduled for students at the Michigan Athletics Indoor Training Center and Mejier later this week will use the two-dose Pfizer vaccine rather than the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen, U-M officials wrote Tuesday in an email to the campus community. The Michigan Medicine J&J clinics at Michigan Stadium April 19 & 20 and later this week in Dearborn and Flint have been canceled, and the hospital is “working to reschedule these as supplies allow.”
“If you’ve chosen an appointment at any vaccination clinic because of the one-dose J&J vaccine, please note that clinics will now be administering only the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which require a second shot three or four weeks later,” the email read. “Getting a first dose this week would put your second dose — depending on vaccine — in early-to-mid May.”
Central Student Government is providing free bus transportation for students getting vaccinated at Meijer Thursday and Friday. More information, including bus routes and times, can be found here.
The Washtenaw County Health Department is also pausing use of the J&J COVID-19 vaccine until at least Thursday, as recommended by the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Tuesday morning. The state of Michigan is also following the recommended pause.
The federally recommended pause is “out of an abundance of caution”, the FDA tweeted Tuesday morning, after rare blood clots were discovered in six American women who had recently received the J&J vaccine. Nearly 7 million people in the U.S. have received the J&J vaccine. The adverse side effects appear to be extremely rare, the tweet said. The CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices will meet on Wednesday to discuss the complications, and the FDA will review that analysis before moving forward.
A clinic scheduled for Tuesday in Chelsea, Mich., will offer the Pfizer vaccine instead of J&J, and a Tuesday clinic at Eastern Michigan University has been postponed. Two Wednesday clinics, at Concordia University and EMU, are also postponed.
While the U-M clinics are outside Washtenaw County Health Department jurisdiction, Public Information Officer Susan Ringler Cerniglia told The Michigan Daily it is possible Washtenaw County J&J clinics could resume vaccinations Thursday after the CDC committee reviews the situation Wednesday.
“We should be considering them tentative at this point until more is learned, ” Ringler Cerniglia said. “Unfortunately, this week we had a large supply of Johnson & Johnson and scheduled a lot of clinics.”
Michigan Medicine, Washtenaw County and the state will continue to administer Pfizer and Moderna vaccines as previously scheduled.
University President Mark Schlissel had touted the benefits of the J&J vaccines in his Wednesday email announcing the student vaccination clinics, writing that its one-dose delivery makes it easier to administer to students leaving U-M campuses at the end of the semester.
“The Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine is highly effective at preventing severe illness from COVID-19,” Schlissel wrote. “There is also accumulating evidence that vaccination prevents infection and transmission of COVID-19 to others. It has already been administered to nearly 4 million people and is very safe.”
The Daily also has a running list of vaccination sites in Southeast Michigan that can be found here.
Daily News Editor Calder Lewis can be reached at calderll@umich.edu.