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Johnson & Johnson vaccine supply glitch causes concern in Tri-State

ByEyewitness News WABC logo

Saturday, April 10, 2021

J&J vaccine distribution will slow down 84% next week

There's a bump in the road in the Race to Vaccinate, and concern about how that will impact the Tri-State region. The federal government will ship fewer Johnson and Johnson vaccine doses across the country next week due to production issues.

NEW YORK (WABC) -- There's a bump in the road in the Race to Vaccinate, and concern about how that will impact the Tri-State region.

The federal government will ship fewer Johnson and Johnson vaccine doses to the New York City area and across the country next week due to production issues.

The CDC says there will be less than 800,000 Johnson and Johnson shots allocated next week, an 85% drop.

That's compared to 4.95 million this week.

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Josh Einiger has more on the increasing vaccination efforts in New York.

While the federal government hasn't said exactly why, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and other governors are speculating that a mix up of ingredients at a Baltimore plant which ruined 15 million doses might be to blame.

"We have pretty clear visibility that the Johnson & Johnson supply that went up so dramatically this week is going to be down for at least the next couple weeks," said Gov. Murphy. "There are available appointments now. They are probably not going be available next week."

Federal officials have said the mix-up at the plant is not going to impact doses.

Still, the federal government is alerting states, as officials try to manage appointments based on their expect supply of doses.

This supply glitch comes as every American will qualify to be vaccinated in the coming weeks.

Johnson & Johnson has promised that it will still deliver on the promised supply by the end of May.

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