Workers scrambling to vaccinate homebound Kansas Citians after Johnson & Johnson news
Janet Carlson Baker had searched unsuccessfully since February to find a way, any way, to get the COVID-19 vaccine to homebound seniors served by the KC Shepherd’s Center.
She finally found it just days ago, thanks to a new team within the Kansas City Fire Department. Fifty of the center’s clients were vaccinated in their homes last week, and another 25 were scheduled for Wednesday — the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
But on Tuesday, health authorities suspended use of that vaccine after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommended a pause.
The agencies cited six cases of a rare and severe blood clot that developed among nearly 7 million people who have received the shot in the United States. A CDC committee was scheduled to discuss the cases Wednesday, and the FDA has launched an investigation.
The move was a setback — possibly temporary — and forced Plan Bs in local efforts to get homebound residents vaccinated.
“It’s devastating,” said Baker, the Shepherd’s Center executive director. “You cannot imagine the gratitude of the people we have heard from that have received these vaccines.
“Some of them are in tears because they had no way of getting out. We’ve been in tears because we’re just so grateful to get someone we could partner with and get people vaccinated in their homes. And now this. I haven’t been thinking about much else.”
The single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is considered ideal for vaccinating hard-to-reach residents, including people who have disabilities and the homeless.
“We had a plan in place we were going to use the J&J with these homebound folks, because frankly, the J&J is just easier to transport around. It doesn’t have to be refrigerated at the same temperature, and there are a lot of logistical things that made it better,” said Jimmy Walker, Kansas City Fire Department assistant chief.
“There are hopes that we can get back to using J&J by next week. But right now … we found some alternatives. We have partnered with Kansas City Health Department, and we’re already working with the National Guard (to get) the Moderna vaccine.”
Switching to the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine will require agencies and health departments to first, find those doses, then schedule two visits instead of one.
“The outreach nurses were using the Johnson and Johnson vaccine” to reach homeless people and those with a developmental disability or transportation issues, said Dr. Sanmi Areola, director of the Johnson County Department of Health and Environment.
“The plan is to use the Moderna vaccine for the time being with those who are homebound. As more information becomes available about the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, we will evaluate how we will utilize it.”
Health officials ask anyone who had received the J&J vaccine within the last two weeks and experienced symptoms such as severe headache, abdominal or leg pain, and shortness of breath, to contact their doctor right away.
Health officials say anyone who received the vaccine more than a month ago is at low risk for the problems that have paused its use.
‘We’ve got the vaccine’
When the vaccines first became available, Baker first thought of homebound clients of the Shepherd’s Center, which serves 2,500 seniors across the metro.
“And I had no answers,” she said. “What we did have, we were able to get a couple of clinic times for our mobile older adults … with Kansas City Hospice and with Truman. But that still did not address the issue.”
She said some of their homebound older adults are physically disabled, some “who literally live on hospital beds in their living rooms,” and others are “98-year-old, independent, cognitively healthy people who are just homebound because it’s safer for them to be there.”
Two weeks ago she happened to mention her problem to her neighbor, a retired Kansas City firefighter, and he told her of a new team within the department. Within a day he helped put her in touch with the team, which had been looking to assist anyone needing help getting the vaccine to older or homebound Kansas Citians.
Baker was told: “If you’ve got people, we’ve got vaccine and we’ve got the ability to go out and vaccinate.”
Her response: “Are you kidding me?”
The center had earlier contacted its clients, and almost overnight, “we had 170 people respond, please, please, please, can you get vaccine for myself, my mother, whomever,” Baker said.
The first homebound clients were vaccinated last week during the official rollout of the fire department’s new community medical response team, said Walker. The fire department also has been involved in larger efforts to distribute the vaccine, including the recent mass vaccination event at Arrowhead Stadium.
“If we can’t by next week use Johnson & Johnson, we’re going to make the switch to the two-shot Moderna … because it’s important to get shots in arms, and if we have to make a change, we’ll make a change,” said Walker.
“We’re not giving up on this. We’re not giving up on Janet or the Shepherd’s Center. We’re going to move forward. We’re just going to keep going.”
Baker said she has “every confidence we’ll be doing them next week, one way or the other.”
She said the center can help anyone in the metro who is homebound and needing the vaccine. They can visit the KC Shepherd’s Center website, kcshepherdscenter.org or call 816-444-1121.
Dernice Wyatt, who is 91 and lives by herself in Kansas City, got her Johnson & Johnson shot last week through the Shepherd’s Center and fire department’s effort and she’s had no adverse reaction.
“They came in the house, a fireman, and they gave me the shot,” Wyatt said Wednesday. “Not one minute’s trouble.”
She’s not worried about six people out of millions having an adverse response and said she would take the J&J shot again.
“And I encourage my friends to get a shot. I tell them I believe in that shot and girl, you should get that shot.”
This story was originally published April 14, 2021 at 3:29 PM.
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