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

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The department stopped distributing 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 discontinue use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in six reported cases of a “rare and serious” type of blood clot.

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

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

“This will help sustain vaccination efforts to deliver the first doses to more than 70 percent of our overseas workforce and their families by the end of May,” Kirby said.

Several military members and their families expressed frustration at the slow pace of vaccine rollout abroad as they and their families depend on the military health system and each base has a health clinic serving the community.
The US top general in charge of US forces in Europe acknowledged that the distribution of vaccines in overseas bases was not the same as distribution in bases in the United States during a congressional hearing on Thursday.

Secretary (Lloyd) Austin was key in pointing out that the percentage of those members of the level 1 military uniform who received the vaccine in CONUS should be the same in Europe and the Pacific and the same for the Dependents, that has not been the case, so we are working to fix that, ”said General Tod Wolters, commander of US European Command.

US European Command is changing from receiving 3,500 vaccines a week to “18,000 vaccines a week,” Wolters said Thursday.

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

“Unfortunately, with the J&J cutoff, there will likely be about a 20% reduction on those peaks, and we’re still working on those details, but the site photo from Europe will be for the military members and certainly for the dependents. will be significantly different at the end of May than now, as we will even triple our overvoltage capacity, “Wolters said.

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