The US Centers for Disease Control and prevention announced this week that the COVID-19 vaccine from Johnson & Johnson is no longer available in the United States.
According to authorities, all remaining doses expired last week, and providers have been directed to dispose of any left over. They say approximately 19 million people in the US have received the J & J vaccine since it first became available, while more than 31.5 million doses had been delivered to states and other jurisdictions, leaving approximately 12.5 million doses unused.
Last year, the CDC granted an emergency use authorization of the vaccine only to adults for whom other vaccines weren’t appropriate or accessible due to a rare and dangerous clotting condition after receiving the vaccine. About 7 percent of people being vaccinated in the us got the J&J vaccine as their first shot, while mRNA vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna were the majority of shots.