A nurse administers a shot on the FEMA-supported COVID-19 vaccination web site at Valencia State Faculty on the primary day the positioning resumed providing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Photographs
CVS Well being has stopped providing Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose Covid-19 vaccine in its pharmacies, now solely making the photographs accessible in roughly 10% of its retail places, the corporate advised CNBC on Wednesday.
The pharmacy chain stated it made the change over the previous a number of weeks. It stated clients can nonetheless get the photographs at nearly 1,000 MinuteClinic places in 25 states and Washington D.C. MinuteClinics are within a few of the firm’s drugstores and supply non-emergency medical care and different companies, resembling diagnostic exams and vaccines.
CVS pharmacies will proceed to supply the two-dose Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna Covid vaccines nationwide, in accordance with CVS spokesperson Mike DeAngelis. He declined to say what number of pharmacies had been impacted by the change however stated it could assist with the pharmacy chain’s vaccine provide.
CVS has greater than 9,900 retail places, in accordance with its 2020 annual report.
J&J didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for touch upon the change.
J&J’s vaccine was touted by federal well being officers as a blessing when it was approved by the FDA in late February as a result of it requires only one dose and will be saved at fridge temperatures for months. It has since suffered from poor perceptions from the general public about its general effectiveness, issues about uncommon unwanted side effects in addition to manufacturing delays.
For some People, issues concerning the one-shot vaccine have intensified with the rise of the delta variant, which spreads extra simply and will trigger extra extreme illness than the unique coronavirus. Some folks have gone so far as looking for out a supplemental dose, which isn’t but really useful by the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. This week, San Francisco well being officers stated they’re permitting sufferers who obtained J&J vaccine to get a second shot produced by both Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna.
The change by CVS will affect the supply of the photographs for a lot of People. J&J’s vaccine already hasn’t seen as strong uptake within the U.S. because the mRNA vaccines have.
About 13.5 million doses of the J&J vaccine have been administered within the U.S. as of Tuesday, in accordance with knowledge compiled by the CDC. That compares with a mixed 333.6 million doses for Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccine.
Dr. Paul Offit, who has served on advisory panels for each the CDC and the Meals and Drug Administration, stated J&J’s vaccine actually “suffered” after federal well being officers in April requested states to briefly halt utilizing the shot “out of an abundance of warning” whereas it investigated six girls who developed a uncommon, however critical, blood-clotting dysfunction, stated
The really useful pause was lifted 10 days later after U.S. officers decided that the advantages of the inoculations outweighed their dangers.
“I believe the general public hears that the vaccine is taken off the marketplace for a time period and it’s simply onerous to get previous that scarlet letter,” stated Offit, additionally director of the Vaccine Training Middle at Kids’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
The corporate and U.S. well being officers have maintained that the one-dose vaccine is protected and extremely efficient, particularly in opposition to extreme illness, hospitalizations and loss of life. J&J reported final month that new analysis discovered its vaccine was efficient in opposition to the extremely contagious delta, even eight months after inoculation.
–CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed to this report.