Raleigh, North Carolina – The Johnson & Johnson brand of the COVID-19 vaccine has become popular with the public because it is a single dose vaccine.
However, some local vaccine suppliers postponed their use of the J&J vaccine after people experienced adverse reactions on Thursday.
On Saturday, demand for the J&J vaccine was still high at a UNC family medicine clinic on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh.
“Our 200 appointments were completed in about three days,” said Leslie Hopkins, the clinic’s administrator.
Wake County reported nearly 20 adverse reactions after the J&J shooting from a very small percentage of people who received the shot at a clinic Thursday. Symptoms included nausea, dizziness and fainting from 18 of the more than 2,300 people who received the vaccine at the PNC Arena. Wake County will continue to use the shot on Sunday.
Hopkins said they were asking more questions to people receiving the vaccine, such as whether he fainted or fainted when blood was drawn in the past. Those who had problems after their shootings had previous cases in which they fainted, according to Hopkins.
“We had a couple of patient questions today,” Hopkins noted.
On Friday, UNC Health issued a statement supporting its stance that the J&J vaccine is safe.
“We found that there was nothing wrong with the vaccine itself,” Hopkins said. “It was just an incident of patients who had previous fainting situations.”
Page Swanson was one of the first to get the J&J vaccine from UNC Health after they said they would stop using the shot temporarily. This announcement came when I was making an appointment.
“That news came out the same day,” Swanson said. “I waited for the reports to come out about what happened.”
Reactions to Raleigh are not entirely isolated. In Georgia, medical officials are taking a temporary break at J&J after eight people experienced adverse reactions at one site on Wednesday. Similar problems have been reported in Colorado and Iowa.
The CDC says there are no safety issues with the J&J vaccine.
Coronavirus vaccines in NC
The latest state information shows that 28.4% of adults in North Carolina are completely vaccinated. You can schedule a vaccine for yourself at yourshot.org or by calling (984) 215-5485.