Johnson & Johnson vaccine supply to Massachusetts to dive bomb

Nation-wide supply of the one dose only Johnson & Johnson vaccine just took a hit after the company acknowledged a manufacturing glitch at the Maryland plant responsible for the production of the vaccine.

The CDC estimates the drop in vaccine availability to be approximately a reduction of 86%. For the Commonwealth specifically, that is a drop from 104,000 last week to a meager 12,300 doses this week resulting in 91,700 people left out in the cold.

While this is bad news, Governor Baker said there is also some good news: in spite of the Johnson & Johnson manufacturing error, he expects about 2 million Massachusetts residents will still receive the vaccine and the state is on target to meet its goal of delivering 100 million vaccine doses by June.

On April 19th, Massachusetts will expand the group of people eligible to receive the vaccine to people who are 16-years old and older.