Colorado resumes use of Johnson & Johnson vaccine

In response to the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announcement that providers should resume using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and the Colorado Joint Vaccine Task Force are alerting providers they can proceed with using the Janssen (Johnson & Johnson) COVID-19 vaccine immediately.

“We are happy to have this highly effective, one-dose vaccine back as an option for Coloradans,” said Dr. Eric France, CDPHE chief medical officer. “We appreciate the caution the CDC and FDA took to evaluate the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and are ready to ramp back up distribution as quickly as possible.”

The recommendation comes after federal health officials recommended temporarily suspending use of the vaccine after reviewing reports of six individuals in the U.S. who got rare and severe blood clots after receiving the vaccine (now called thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome).

In light of the news, CDPHE has decided to proceed by including FDA’s updated warning to patients about the increased risk of very rare but potentially severe TTS, particularly among women under the age of 50. Approximately 7 cases of TTS per 1,000,000 vaccine doses have been identified in this group to date.

CDPHE has also sent information to health care providers to inform how to identify and treat TTS in the very rare case it were to occur.

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