Henry County has appointments available for Moderna vaccine

The pause in administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine does not include the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines. Henry County Public Health continues to give the Moderna vaccine at its weekly vaccination clinics, and appointments are available. Sign up at HealthyHenryCounty.org/covid or call 319-385-0779 during business hours.

On April 13, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause in the use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to allow researchers at both agencies time to better understand a small number of reported cases of women developing a rare clotting disorder after receiving the vaccine.

So far 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered and six cases of blood clots have been reported. That is 0.000088 percent chance. All six known cases have occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48, within six to 13 days of receiving the vaccine.

The CDC is pausing the vaccine distribution in an “abundance of caution” because safety is its top priority and because it wants time to communicate with doctors about how to respond to this very specific blood clot.

If you had the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in the past two weeks, and you have the following symptoms, please contact your health care provider:

These are adverse reactions and to reiterate, this is very rare. A sore red arm, fever, body aches and fatigue are some of the normal symptoms that you may have after the vaccination. These symptoms are a body’s immune system responding.

Getting more people vaccinated will be a turning point in controlling the virus. Public Health will continue to share vaccine information and updates at HealthyHenryCounty.org/covid and Facebook.com/HealthyHenryCounty.