DeSantis: Florida will not receive Johnson & Johnson vaccine in foreseeable future

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PALM HARBOR, Fla. (WCJB) - Florida’s Johnson & Johnson vaccine supply has dried up.

According to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, the state is not expecting anymore J&J vaccines soon.

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“We have no more J&J coming for the foreseeable future for the next two or three weeks. We’re not anticipating any new J&J, and I don’t know what the issue with that is,” DeSantis said. “If you’ve been waiting for J&J, and you have an opportunity to get a Pfizer, or a Moderna, I’d recommend getting the Pfizer or the Moderna if you can do it, because I can’t guarantee you J&J is going to be available.”

In addition to not seeing extra doses of the one dose vaccine, the overall vaccine supply will not be increasing.

“Our supply is pretty stagnant it seems like over the next few weeks,” he said. “We’re still not where we want to be on supply...I can’t guarantee you the J&J’s going to be available the next week or the week after or even, unfortunately, we’re looking two or three weeks into the future when we don’t have those allocations.

“That’s what we’re looking at,” DeSantis said. “It’s beyond our control.”

On Wednesday, DeSantis said they hope to expand vaccine eligibility this month, however, did not mention a specific date.

“We definitely will lower to 55 sometime in March,” he said.

“What the federal government did is that they said anybody that works in K-12 is eligible. So at those FEMA sites, they do it regardless of age. We’re not doing that because we’re following the data and the data tells us if you’re a 22 year-old school employee, you’re at less risk than somebody who is 70, or 65, so we’re focusing on the 50 and up,” DeSantis said.

DeSantis says the state is nearing two-thirds of all seniors vaccinated.

RELATED STORY: Gov. DeSantis hopes to lower COVID vaccine age requirement to 55 soon

“Throughout the whole pandemic, Florida ranks 41st for senior mortality. In other words, 40 states have higher per capita mortality for COVID for seniors than the state of Florida,” said DeSantis.

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