County leaders working to combat COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy after pause on Johnson & Johnson doses

PITTSBURGH — Allegheny County officials called it “an eventful week” after news broke Tuesday that state and federal leaders were calling for a pause on administering the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.

County executive Rich Fitzgerald said despite that, there is a light on the horizon.

“We have over 800,000 shots in arms,” he said. “This is obviously our key to getting back to normal.”

Dr. Debra Bogen, director of the Allegheny County Health Department, echoed Fitzgerald. She said the fourth wave of cases continues with rising hospitalizations, deaths and cases attributed to the different virus variants. She said the state dashboard lists the county as having a 9.6% positivity rate, which is an increase from the week before.

On the other side of that, Bogen said over half of the adult population in the county has had at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The data on breakthrough cases is also very encouraging,” Bogen said.

A breakthrough case is where a person tests positive for COVID-19 14 or more days after receiving their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or after the only dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Bogen said there have been 109 cases among the 213,000 county residents who were fully vaccinated by the end of March. That is a 0.05% rate. She called the statistics “truly remarkable.”

“I’m concerned about vaccine hesitancy,” Bogen said. “To my knowledge, no one vaccinated locally has experienced complications related to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Be aware that adverse reactions are extremely rare.”

She said if fewer people start getting vaccinated, it will only mean the virus impacts our lives longer.

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Cox Media Group