Department of Defense plans to reallocate Moderna doses to overseas bases in light of Johnson & Johnson vaccine break

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The department discontinued Johnson & Johnson vaccines earlier this week in response to recommendations from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The FDA and the CDC have recommended that the United States discontinue the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine in six cases reported in the United States of a “rare and severe” type of blood clot.

Each U.S. military service will now send “a total of about 30,000 additional doses of Moderna in May,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told a news briefing Friday. “About 10,000 a week since May 10.”

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

“This will help maintain proper vaccination efforts to provide initial doses of over 70% of our overseas staff and their families by the end of May,” Kirby said.

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

“Secretary (Lloyd) Austin was instrumental in showing that the percentage of members of the military uniform of level 1 who received the vaccine in CONUS should be equivalent to the same in Europe and the Pacific and the same for dependents, who did not that was the case, so we’re working to fix that, “said General Tod Wolters, commander of the US European Command.

The US European Command is moving from receiving 3,500 vaccines a week to “being able to receive 18,000 vaccines a week,” Wolters said Thursday.

Wolters said stopping Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine distribution will impact its ability to increase vaccine distribution at bases in Europe, but the situation at bases in Europe will be “significantly different” by the end of May.

“Unfortunately, with the reduction of J&J, there will probably be a reduction of about 20% of these surges and we are still working on these details, but the image of the site in Europe for military members and certainly for dependents, will be significant. different until the end of May than it is today, because we will actually triple our overvoltage capacity, “Wolters said.

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