Health officials closed the COVID-19 mass vaccination site at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City on Wednesday afternoon after 11 people had adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine and two were taken to hospitals for observation.
The Department of Public Health and the Environment in Colorado issued a statement Wednesday night stressing that the side effects patients experience at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, including nausea and dizziness, “match what can be expected”, and that the decision to site early was made out of an abundance of caution.
“The state has no reason to believe that people vaccinated at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park today should be concerned,” the health department said in a news release.
Kevin Massey, a spokesman for Centura Health, which runs the site with the Department of Health, said the number of people experiencing adverse reactions was 0.8% of the 1,700 people vaccinated at the site on Wednesday.
State health officials noted that “in most cases, discomfort due to fever or pain after vaccination is normal.”
“We followed our protocols and with an abundance of warning made the decision – in partnership with the state – to interrupt the rest of the day,” Massey said.
Massey said in a statement that medical staff at the Dick’s Sporting Goods Park site determined that two individuals needed extra observation. On-site OBTs treated the other nine people with juice and water, government officials said.
Prior to Wednesday, the federal vaccine reporting system recorded ten responses to Colorado’s community mass vaccination sites, according to the Department of Health.
“We are committed to providing safe community clinics, and we are so thankful that the clinic today has noticed and helped patients with immediate side effects,” Scott Bookman, COVID-19 State Attorney, said in a statement. said. “We know it can be worrying to hear that people are being transported to the hospital, and we want Coloradans to ensure that the CDC and public health continuously monitor all authorized vaccines.”
Bookman added: ‘It is much safer to get a vaccine than to get seriously ill with COVID-19. This is why I got the vaccine and that I wanted my family to get it. Based on everything we know, it remains true that the best vaccine you can get is the one you can get the fastest. ”
The 640 people who were turned down on Wednesday were vaccinated in the park on Sunday, Massey said. Those now scheduled for Sunday will receive the first of two Pfizer shots, as the drugmaker’s vaccination would have been used earlier in the day, state officials said.
Anyone receiving a COVID-19 vaccine should wait 15 minutes to see if there are adverse reactions.
“Our goal is to continue to vaccinate Coloradans as quickly as possible while keeping our patients’ safety at the forefront,” Massey said.