Johnson & Johnson Crown Janssen Virus Vaccine. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm / dpa (Photo by Wolfgang Kumm / picture alliance via Getty Images)
For government employees subject to Governor Inslee’s vaccination warrant, the deadline to receive two shots from Pfizer or Moderna is two doses. Access to the Johnson & Johnson single-dose alternative vaccine is currently limited in some parts of Washington state.
Most state, health and education employees must be fully vaccinated on Oct. 18 by warrants from Governor Jay Inslee’s office. This only leaves a matter of days to receive the first dose of Pfizer, while the deadline to receive the first dose of Moderna has technically passed.
The definition of “fully vaccinated” represents the 14 days needed to generate the necessary immune response after the second dose, meaning employees under the mandate should receive the second dose before October 4th. According to the Center for Disease Control, the Modern Vaccine requires that its doses be administered 28 days apart. This would mean that the first shot of Moderna should have been administered no later than September 6th.
The Pfizer vaccine only requires 21 days of waiting between doses. This leaves September 13 as the last day to receive the first dose.
State employees are getting much closer to dealing with Governor Inslee over the vaccine’s mandate
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose. However, this is a state supply in question.
Currently, UW Medicine only offers the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through inpatient programs. Its J&J vaccine supply is expanded.
“The CDC and the state have not been able to order any new J&J vaccine for more than a month,” Dr. Steven Fijalka, pharmacy manager at UW Medicine, in MyNorthwest. “Since then, no new supply has arrived in the state. We ran out of supplies a week or two ago. “
Fijalka has seen increased demand for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine recently in light of the vaccine’s mandate.
“With the governor’s mandate, our employees who originally wouldn’t have decided to get vaccinated want the J&J because it’s just a shot,” Fijalka said. “There has been no new J&J vaccine available in the state for a long time. Most organizations are down or running out by the expiration date.”
He clarified that the issue of availability is that of less demand and more information on how the administration of the vaccine can be better saved. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine is presented in a five-dose vial, and when that vial is opened for a single vaccine, the remaining four expire within six hours.
“The request is that if someone wants a vaccine, give them a vaccine, no matter how wasteful it is.” He said Fijalka. “We try to schedule patients as best we can, but often what happens is that you give a dose to one patient and you have to waste the other four. While the demand may not be that great, the waste is higher than you would like to see. It usually expires about six hours after opening a vial. We try to maximize the use of the bottle, but if someone goes through the emergency department and is the only one, they need the vaccine. “
The State Department of Health clarified the supply of Johnson and Johnson vaccines currently available.
“As of Sept. 7, there are a total of 53,031 doses of J&J vaccine available in Washington state,” a Washington State Department of Health spokesman wrote to MyNorthwest. “The order for J&J vaccines will reopen tomorrow, September 8. At this time, the CDC has set a limit of 200 doses of J&J per order per facility each week.”
According to information received from the state Financial Management Office, vaccination warrants will affect approximately 62,000 employees of various state agencies, 150,000 workers in schools and child care programs, 71,000 in higher education institutions, and 400,000 long-term health care and state care workers.
“The state will only get so many things,” Fijalka added. “If everyone orders 200 doses, the state will have to make some decisions.”