Indiana health officials give COVID-19 update from Gary mass vaccination clinic

GARY, Ind.— State and local health officials on Wednesday provided an update on efforts to vaccinate Hoosiers against COVID-19 from the mass vaccination clinic in Gary. Indiana State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box was in attendance and gave an update on the Johnson & Johnson COVID vaccine which had distribution halted because of blood clots in six patients

"We put a pause on in the state of Indiana, based on the CDC and FDA recommendation yesterday, that we should put a pause on the administration of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and that was just done out of an abundance of caution," said Box "Those six cases are unusual in the fact that they involve clotting at the base of the brain with those veins that actually drain the brain and low blood platelets that actually causes our blood to clot."

The Gary clinic was expected to start administering doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in a few weeks and Dr. Box believes that the pause will be lifted in time to keep that plan.

"We will believe we will be giving Johnson & Johnson the last two weeks but that will depend on the outcomes of some the meetings happening today at the ACIP which is the advisory committee for immune practices," said Box.