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Bay Pharmacy pharmacist Jason Pool, left, administers a single-shot Johnson & Johnson Janssen COVID-19 vaccine to Horseshoe Bay resident Tom Mills on Monday, March 8. The pharmacy was the first site in Llano or Burnet County to receive the newly approved vaccine.
Just one week after receiving emergency federal approval as a third option to inoculate against COVID-19, the Johnson & Johnson Janssen single-shot COVID-19 vaccine has arrived in the Highland Lakes.
Pharmacist Jason Pool of Bay Pharmacy in Horseshoe Bay began administering the first 100 doses of the vaccine on Monday, March 8, to customers who qualified to receive it.
“We are really happy to get this chance to provide the vaccine and get a lot of people off to the right start with protection against this virus,” Pool said. “The Johnson & Johnson vaccine is 100 percent effective against preventing death or hospitalization due to COVID-19 and it is a good, safe vaccine to help prevent people from contracting it.”
On Feb. 27, the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) to the Janssen Biotech Inc. vaccine for the prevention of COVID-19 caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), or the novel coronavirus. Janssen Biotech is a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson.
The Janssen vaccine, unlike its two-dose predecessors by Moderna and Pfizer, is a single shot which uses similar modified adenovirus techonology to the company’s Ebola vaccine, which has been safely administered to hundreds of thousands of patients with no major safety issues, according to infectious disease experts.
Johnson & Johnson has already manufactured and shipped four million units of the vaccine with a promise to distribute 100 million units domestically by June. They are working in a historic partnership with their competitor, Merck, to ramp up production of the vaccine.
Pool said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had notified Bay Pharmacy by email last week that it would be shipping 100 doses of the new vaccine to Horseshoe Bay, which sent him and his staffers scrambling to schedule appointments for customers who fall within Phase 1B — those who are over 65 or have a chronic medical condition that puts them at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.
“They (the CDC) have told us we may or may not receive any more vaccines, so we hope we will find out soon if we will get more,” Pool said. “We also have placed an order with the state to receive the Moderna vaccine and we are hoping to hear Friday whether we will receive any of those as well.”
Bay Pharmacy received its final approval from the Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to be a COVID-19 vaccination site last week as well.
Pool began administering the first doses of the Janssen vaccine to customers at 10 a.m. Monday and continued until 2 p.m. Monday, except for a hour lunch break from 12:20 p.m. to 1:20 p.m.
Upon filling out the required paperwork and receiving their vaccination, customers were asked to wait 15-20 minutes at the pharmacy to make sure they did not suffer any adverse reaction before being cleared to leave.
In addition to Bay Pharmacy receiving the first Janssen vaccines, approximately 1,000 second Moderna doses were administered last week in a drive-up vaccination site by Corner Drug and Hill Country Direct Care in Llano as well as a vaccination clinic at Lutie Watkins United Methodist Church on Thursday, March 4. Mid Coast Medical Center in Llano also delivered 200 first-dose Moderna vaccines at a drive-up vaccination center at the hospital.
“This represents a large expansion in the number of entities being able to receive and administer vaccines in the county,” said Dr. Jack Franklin, the Llano County health authority.
In Burnet County, three sites were scheduled to receive Janssen vaccines from DSHS this week:
• Seton Highland Lakes Clinic, 200 John W Hoover Pkwy, Burnet (500 doses).
• Family Wellness Center PA, 2300 US 281, Marble Falls (100 doses).
• National Nephrology Associates, 802 Steve Hawkins Pkwy, Marble Falls (100 doses).
The Baylor Scott & White Medical Center Marble Falls vaccination hub was expected to receive another 1,170 doses of Pfizer vaccine, while Lone Star Circle of Care, 802 Ave. J, Marble Falls, was expected to get 100 doses of Moderna.
