The Department of Defense plans to reassign Moderna doses to overseas bases in light of Johnson & Johnson vaccination

The Department of Defense plans to reassign Moderna doses to overseas bases in light of Johnson & Johnson vaccination

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The department halted the distribution of Johnson & Johnson vaccines earlier this week in response to recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA and CDC have recommended that the US suspend the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over six reported U.S. cases of a “rare and severe” blood clot.

“Each U.S. military service will now send a total of about 30,000 additional doses of Moderna during the month of May,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news conference Friday. “That’s about 10,000 a week from May 10.”

The additional doses of Moderna will be sent to the U.S. European Commando, the U.S. Central Command and the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, Kirby said.

“It will help keep the vaccination efforts ready to provide initial doses to more than 70 percent of our overseas staff and their families by the end of May,” Kirby said.

Several military members and their families have expressed frustration over the slow pace of vaccine explosion abroad as they and their families rely on the military healthcare system and each base has a health clinic serving its community.
The U.S. top general in charge of U.S. troops in Europe acknowledged that the distribution of vaccines at overseas bases was not equal to the distribution at bases in the United States during a congressional hearing Thursday.

“Secretary (Lloyd) Austin was the key to indicating that the percentage of military uniforms in rank 1 who received the vaccine in CONUS should be equal to the same in Europe and the Pacific and the same for the dependents, who that has not yet been the case, so we are working to rectify it, ‘said General Tod Wolters, commander of the U.S. European Command.

U.S. European commandos are moving from receiving 3,500 vaccines a week to “being able to receive 18,000 vaccines a week,” Wolters said Thursday.

Wolters said the disruption of the distribution of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine would affect the ability to increase the distribution of vaccines in bases in Europe, but the situation at bases in Europe by the end of May would be “significantly different”. be”.

‘Unfortunately, with the J&J cut-off, there will probably be a 20% reduction on the congestion, and we’re still working on the details, but the site photo from Europe for the military members and certainly for the dependents, will ‘end of May will be significantly different from today because we will actually triple our training capacity,’ said Wolters.

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