Update
BROCKPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — SUNY Brockport, St. John Fisher College, and Nazareth College are putting a pause on its vaccination clinic after the Food and Drug Administration recommended a stop on the administering the Johnson and Johnson vaccine Tuesday morning.
U.S. government-run vaccine sites are expected to stop offering the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine after multiple people developed blood clots, according to the New York Times.
The announcement is expected Tuesday after six people in the U.S. developed blood clots within two weeks of getting the vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and the Food and Drug Administration is working to determine if there is a link between the vaccine and the blood clots.
A message Tuesday from SUNY Brockport President Heidi Macpherson:
“Today we learned that the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control have called for an immediate pause in the use of Johnson and Johnson’s single-dose vaccine, which SUNY Brockport was planning to distribute at our vaccination clinic scheduled for today and tomorrow.
Out of an abundance of caution and in coordination with the New York State Department of Health, SUNY has paused the distribution of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine as we await further review from the FDA, CDC and DOH.
We apologize to those who were looking forward to being vaccinated today. More information about other potential vaccination opportunities, on or off campus, will be shared when they become available.“
Nazareth College also announced a pause in J&J use in a Tuesday morning statement:
“This morning, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended a pause in administration of Johnson & Johnson (J&J) Janssen COVID-19 vaccine. Due to this recommendation and out of an abundance of caution, the Nazareth on-campus vaccine clinics scheduled for students today from noon to 7 p.m. and Wednesday from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m. are postponed until further notice.“
St. John Fisher College made a similar announcement Tuesday morning on the university’s Instagram page:
“The College has just learned that out of an abundance of caution the CDC and FDA have recommended a pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine due to some reports of blood clotting. Therefore, our student vaccine clinic has been cancelled.
If you had an appointment scheduled, you will receive a cancellation email. Should we have an opportunity to obtain the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines for an on-campus clinic, we will share that information with you.
Testing will proceed as scheduled.“
Check back with News 8 WROC as we will continue to update this developing story.
Original
BROCKPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — SUNY Brockport is holding its first ever on-campus vaccination clinic, which will run April 13 and 14, on the campus ice arena.
A total of 300 Johnson & Johnson vaccines will be administered to students by SUNY Brockport nursing student volunteers under supervision. Officials with the school system say this is all an effort to turn a new page and get back on campus fully in the fall.
SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras says the plan right now is to bring students back 100% for in-person learning in the fall, across the board for every SUNY school. Local SUNY schools in Brockport and Geneseo are feeling optimistic about those plans — by following state and federal guidance, they say it can be done.
A major contributor for that optimism is a high level of enthusiasm among students about getting the vaccine. So much so, that Malatras says he doesn’t think a mandate is in the equation right now.
“Those slots were really indicative of the fact that students are eager and excited to get vaccinated and we are excited to have more of them vaccinated in the coming weeks and months,” said SUNY Brockport communications officer John Follaco.
SUNY Brockport isn’t the only local school to hold a vaccination clinic — St. John Fisher and Nazareth college, while not SUNY, are doing vaccine clinics of their own also with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
