More Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Clinics Hit Pause — 18 People Suffer Reactions at N.C. Site, 4 Hospitalized
North Carolina paused two vaccine sites Thursday, as Colorado, Iowa and Georgia also reported adverse reactions, but CDC said no cause for concern.
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Health officials on Thursday paused COVID vaccinations at a Wake County, North Carolina, site after 18 people experienced adverse reactions to the Johnson & Johnson (J&J) single-dose shot.
The report followed Wednesday’s news that a J&J vaccine site in Colorado shut down after 11 people experienced reactions, and two were hospitalized.
According to a Wake County press release, more than 2,300 J&J vaccines were administered at the PNC Arena clinic in Raleigh. Eighteen patients suffered immediate adverse reactions and were evaluated by Wake County emergency medical personnel. Fourteen were treated on site and four people were transported to area hospitals.
Wake County officials and the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services made the decision to pause vaccinations after consulting with the vaccine manufacturer. Both teams said they would investigate the issue.
Remaining appointment holders were offered Pfizer vaccines or the opportunity to reschedule until the evaluation is completed.
“We know it can be alarming to hear about or see people having reactions to vaccination — this is why we closely monitor those we vaccinate in case of reaction,” said Wake County Public Health Medical Director Kim McDonald.
A few hours after the PNC Arena clinic closed, UNC Health’s Friday Center and Hillsborough Campus vaccination sites also stopped administering J&J’s vaccine.
According to U.S. News and World Report, David Wohl, an infectious disease expert at UNC Health who oversees the UNC vaccination sites, said between eight and 14 of the roughly 1,250 J&J vaccine recipients injected Thursday fainted after receiving the shot, though nobody was taken to a hospital.
Because of the timing of the day in which the adverse reactions started occurring, Wohl said UNC Health completed all shots for people who had Thursday appointments at the two sites.
Wohl’s department is still working to analyze the source of the problem, but Wohl said he does not believe most of the cases stem from allergic reactions to the vaccine.
“I’m just concerned that if we have as many people fainting as we do, we need to understand why,” Wohl said. “Everyone that I’ve seen really doesn’t have an underlying medical history that’s of concern, but many of them do report having fainted previously.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed the vaccine lot used at the PNC Arena and UNC sites and recommended J&J vaccinations continue, according to WSOC-TV, a Charlotte news station. The CDC is not telling health departments to stop vaccinations, the agency said in a statement.
CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said the agency is aware of adverse reactions in some people who received J&J’s COVID vaccine in Iowa, Colorado, Georgia and North Carolina. Those reactions include dizziness, light-headedness, feeling faint and rapid breathing, but vaccine lot analyses found no reason for concern.
“COVID-19 vaccines are safe and effective,” Nordlund said. “Many people don’t have any side effects after COVID-19 vaccines, but some people will have pain or swelling at the injection site or fever, chills or a headache. These typically don’t last long and are signs that your body is building protection.”
In response to the recent reports of site closings, the vaccine maker said in a statement, “there is no greater priority than the safety and well-being of the people we serve. When we receive reports of adverse events in individuals receiving our medicines and vaccines, we collect necessary information and carefully assess the events.”
As The Defender reported in March, J&J has a criminal track record involving safety concerns with numerous products. The company has paid billions of dollars in fines and punitive damages related to fraud and other dubious practices for its role in the opioid crisis, for failure to warn that Risperdal — an antipsychotic drug produced by the company — could lead to breast growth in boys and for its asbestos-tainted baby powder associated with cancer, which the company knew about for almost 50 years and failed to disclose.
Unlike Moderna and Pfizer’s vaccines, which use the mRNA technology, J&J uses a genetically engineered “viral vector” similar to the technology used by AstraZeneca.
On Wednesday, EU regulators confirmed a “possible link” between AstraZeneca and blood clots resulting in suspension of AstraZeneca’s vaccine in younger populations in many European countries, and guidance in the UK that the vaccine not be used in people under 30.
The European Medicines Agency said Wednesday during a press conference it is also looking carefully at the J&J vaccine, as three cases of blood clots associated with low platelets, similar to the cases reported after AstraZeneca vaccines, have been reported, as well as one instance of thrombosis in a clinical trial.
Latest VAERS Data Show Vaccine Injury Trends Continue, CDC Fails to Respond to The Defender’s Inquiries
VAERS data released today showed 56,869 reports of adverse events following COVID vaccines, including 2,342 deaths and 7,971 serious injuries between Dec. 14, 2020 and April 1, 2021.
Rest homes still waiting for Covid-19 vaccination start date
Rest homes around the country are still waiting for a start date for Covid-19 vaccinations, despite being in a priority group that should be getting the jab about now.

The Aged Care Association represents about 90 percent of rest homes in New Zealand and it wants certainty around the rollout, saying it is juggling flu jabs too.
Chief executive Simon Wallace told Checkpoint the association has about 35,000 residents and just as many staff due vaccinations, but only a handful had the Covid-19 jab so far.
“Like everyone we would like the rollout to move more quickly. It’s certainly started in some regions, for example Nelson started a week ago.
“With the trans-Tasman bubble and quarantine-free travel upon us, that actually just raises the risk profile of our vulnerable people even more, and really emphasises the need to get moving with the rollout.
“Our rest homes are ready. They’re ready and they’re waiting to hear from the DHBs.
“What we don’t have and what we need actually are dates for rollouts by individual DHBs. This has been one of the frustrating things for aged residential care. And the reason it’s frustrating is we’ve also got the flu vaccine rollout happening at the same time as Covid-19, and there needs to be a 14-day gap between the first Covid-19 vaccination and the second dose.
Covid-19: Authorities unable to say how many border workers unvaccinated
From Monday unvaccinated managed isolation workers will start being moved to low-risk roles – yet health authorities can’t be sure which workers haven’t had the jab.

The new Covid 19 vaccination facility in South Auckland Photo: RNZ / Simon Rogers
Uptake by MIQ staff is described as strong, although the government says a “small proportion” have not been vaccinated and some people may decide not share their vaccination status with their employer.
A security guard at the Grand Millennium Hotel tested positive for Covid-19 and it transpired he had missed two vaccine appointments for “personal reasons.”
The Ministry of Health launched an audit of the Grand Millennium Hotel, doubled the testing frequency for staff there and in a statement said the majority of the worker’s colleagues have had the jab.
“We know that the company employing this case has vaccinated 79 percent of its MIF workers and 81 percent of the Grand Millennium staff have received their first vaccination,” it said.
This is a notably lower estimate than the one provided by Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins on 23 March. Speaking to media about vaccination rates, he said “the feedback we’ve had from the hotel management at the Grand Millennium is that they’re well above 90 percent.”
Yesterday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield said between 90 and 95 percent of the country’s managed isolation workers had had the vaccine.
However asked the same question just a few hours later, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment said “around 85 percent of MIQ workers have had their first dose and about 50 percent have had their second.”
Predictably Mediawatch, from Radio New Zealand, which used to be a commentator on the media, joins in with the fascistic attack on free speech by the government at the behest of the WHO and other globalist entities.
New Zealand’s SOLE representative of commonsense will be silenced soon. You can bet on it.
Midweek Mediawatch – talk radio turmoil
In the week Facebook finally banned anti-vax misinformation, MediaWorks station Magic Talk spent nearly three hours airing the views of vaccine sceptics.

MagicTalk host Peter Williams in the studio. Photo: screenshot / Facebook
The day before before MediaWorks announced the departure of his colleague Sean Plunket, Magic Talk’s morning host Peter Williams read out a complimentary email he’d received from a group called Voices For Freedom.
They’d written to praise a discussion he’d hosted the day before about the Pfizer-produced Covid-19 vaccine. Williams directed his listeners to visit the group’s website.
“[It’s] asking questions similar to mine here yesterday, but they appear to know far more about the science, especially something called molecular mimicry,” he said.
Voices for Freedom is co-led by Claire Deeks, a board member of the conspiracy-friendly party Advance NZ. A visit to the group’s website reveals a smorgasbord of scientifically-dubious anti-vax information – and an invitation to sign a petition to stop the vaccine rollout.
Williams was right to announce his show dovetailed with the website’s content – it too aired misinformation on this important public health issue.
Over the course of three hours, he took calls and texts from a series of questionably-informed audience members, often agreeing with them, and adding similar comment.
One caller said the vaccine will alter our DNA.
“Bill Gates has talked about this. He’s on record talking about this philosophy,” she said.
The caller went on to falsely claim 99.7% of Covid-19 patients survive. Williams’ didn’t push back against any of her points, and only questioned whether that inaccurate death rate figure was extreme enough.
“Is it that low?” he said. “I thought it was more like 99.9%.”
Williams went on to agree with texter Gordon who said New Zealanders taking the vaccine are “test subjects being experimented on”.
“I take that attitude as well,” Williams said.
He played down the threat posed by the more infectious South African strain of Covid-19.
“We had that virulent South African strain in the country the other week,” he said.
“It didn’t turn out to be particularly virulent or particularly contagious.”
All these claims have been debunked. The death rate from Covid-19 is estimated at between 0.5 and 1.5%, not 0.1%. Five percent of people with the virus become critically unwell.
The most up-to-date research shows the South African strain of Covid-19 is about 50% more infectious.
The claim about DNA had spread widely on social media. It has been debunked in factchecks by Reuters, BBC and The Spinoff.
And the vaccine will have been distributed to billions of people by the time it gets to New Zealand. New Zealanders have little claim to being subjects of human experiments.

After a two day on-air absence, MediaWorks announced on Wednesday that Sean Plunket had left Magic Talk. Photo: screenshot
The discussion was broadcast with Magic Talk in the middle of navigating a crisis.
Advertisers including Spark, Kiwibank, and Vodafone all suspended their ad spend on the station, after fill-in host John Banks agreed with, and added to, points made by a racist caller in late-January.
Vodafone went further, updating their entire advertising policy after Banks’ comments. It has issued “ethical advertising” guidelines, which emphasise its commitment to Treaty of Waitangi principles, and its preference for spending with media outlets that celebrate Aotearoa’s diversity.
On Tuesday, MediaWorks chief executive Cam Wallace announced Plunket’s departure. The afternoon host had also been accused of offensive rhetoric. The broadcasting watchdog recently deemed one of his interviews a breach of standards for denigration and discrimination.
But Peter Williams’ Magic Morning show on Monday was further evidence that Magic Talk still has an appetite for contrarian content.
In The Guardian this week, a doctor in the UK’s NHS described the abuse she’s suffered from people who’ve been won over by Covid-19 misinformation.
“I’ve been called Hitler, Shipman, Satan and Mengele for insisting on Twitter that our hospitals aren’t empty,” wrote Dr Rachel Clarke.
“Last night a charming “Covid sceptic” sent me this: “You are paid to lie and a disgrace to your profession. You have clearly sold your soul and are nothing more than a child abuser destroying futures. I do not consent to your satanic ways.”
Clarke said that abuse came even as she watched patients die of the virus with no friends or family around to comfort them.
“Here, though, is the detail that haunts me. For every patient who dies from Covid-19 in hospital, from the moment they encounter that first masked paramedic, they will never see a human face again,” Dr Clarke wrote.
On Tuesday, Williams’ show aired inaccurate information about a treatment intended to save people from that fate.
About an hour into Monday’s show about Covid vaccines, Peter Williams took one call that didn’t jibe with the majority of his correspondents.
“We have to put our trust in the professionals,” the caller said.
“My thinking is these people are supposed to have years of knowledge and training, and they’re supposed to know more than people who have done other things totally unrelated to the medical field.”
“You make a very fair point,” Williams said.
But he didn’t take it onboard.
When his next caller said she was wavering about taking the vaccine, he encouraged her to keep wavering.
The show went on in that vein for two more hours.
MediaWorks hasn’t yet responded to a request for comment from Mediawatch, but it told Newsroom the station’s mission was getting listeners to “join the conversation”.
That would be more convincing if Williams had pushed back against his callers’ views with accurate information.
Instead, like John Banks, he agreed with and, at times, amplified the points of some poorly-informed callers.
Here, MediaWorks is out of step even with Facebook. It banned anti-vax misinformation this week after refusing to take responsibility for misinformation it has hosted.