Niagara’s acting medical officer of health hopes to begin vaccinating shut-ins in the next few weeks, if use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approved.
Dr. Mustafa Hirji said the single-dose vaccines produced by Johnson & Johnson would be ideal for vaccinating people in their homes who are unable to make their way to vaccinations clinics, pharmacies or doctors offices.
“It sounds like the province is getting that (vaccine) within the next week, and we’re really hoping they will be giving that to us so in the next week to two weeks we can start to go around and vaccinate housebound persons with this vaccine,” he said.
“We’re waiting with bated breath for details on how they’re going to roll that vaccine out.”
Distribution of the first 300,000 doses of the J&J vaccine were put on hold by Health Canada, after learning vaccines manufactured at a Maryland facility messed up ingredients in 15 million doses bound for the U.S. market, Canada Press reported on Friday.
The Emergent Biosolutions facility in Baltimore was recently cited by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for violations including cleaning and sterilization failures, the potential for cross-contamination and failure to follow required protocols. The FDA ordered the facility to stop making J&J vaccine until the problems are corrected, while the earlier mistake on the doses resulted in all 15 million being destroyed.
Although Health Canada cleared 1.5 million doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine made at the facility, it did not think the Canadian J&J doses had any connection to that plant. Now, however, Health Canada said the drug substance that makes up part of the J&J vaccine was actually produced there and then shipped elsewhere for the vaccines to be finished.
The J&J vaccine has yet to be used in Canada, and the National Advisory Committee on Immunization hasn’t yet provided guidance on how it thinks it should be used.
Doses of J&J vaccine that arrived in Canada on Wednesday are in holding at the Innomar Strategies facility near Toronto’s Pearson International Airport.
Niagara Emergency Medical Services paramedics expect to be called in to distribute the vaccine to any housebound individuals who require it, and Chief Kevin Smith said recently paramedics are waiting for the OK from public health to begin distributing it.
Because the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires a single dose and can be easily transported, Hirji said it ideal for vaccinating shut-in residents in the community, because health-care workers will only be required to make a single visit to administer it.
Although the AstraZeneca vaccine can also be easily transported, Hirji said there has only been enough of that two-dose vaccine distributed to supply pharmacies and primary health-care offices, such as family doctors and community health centres.
Other vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna should ideally be frozen to at least –60 C to be transported, making them unsuitable for that use.
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Johnson & Johnson vaccine ideal for inoculating shut-ins: Hirji - StCatharinesStandard.ca
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