BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (WBKO) – Issues with the Johnson and Johnson vaccine have health officials concerned that a wave of hesitancy may be lurking over the currently unvaccinated.
“One of the things that we have to keep in mind is that Kentucky did not get large quantities of the Johnson and Johnson or J&J vaccine,” said Melinda Joyce with Med Center Health.
Pausing the J&J single-dose vaccine impacts Kentuckians living in rural communities the hardest, as the J&J vaccine went to community pharmacies and health departments. Joyce says vaccine sites are transitioning to Pfizer and Moderna–which use an entirely different technology that Joyce says is safer.
“Both the J&J vaccine and the AstraZeneca vaccine, use something called a viral vector type of technology. The Moderna and the Pfizer vaccine uses messenger RNA, so even though they ultimately get to the same effect of helping to prevent the covid virus from being very significant if you are exposed, they work by different mechanisms. The Pfizer and the Moderna, they’ve not had any of the side effects reported,” said Joyce. “The Pfizer and the Moderna is going to be your safest choices”
Joyce says the chances of adverse side effects from the Johnson and Johnson vaccine are 1 in 1 million.
“The chance of dying from covid is 1 in 580. So if you look at those numbers alone, the vaccine is still much, much safer than taking the risk of getting covid,” said Joyce.
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