Home » News » Hospital staff still vaccinated faster despite Janssen stop | NOW

Hospital staff still vaccinated faster despite Janssen stop | NOW

Hospital staff under the age of 60 who provide a lot of corona care will receive an accelerated injection against the corona virus next week, despite a temporary stop of the Janssen vaccine. If the Janssen vaccine cannot be used further next week, these people will receive another vaccine, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) reports Friday.

It concerns 35,000 healthcare workers. From next week, they can be injected with Pfizer, or with the Janssen vaccine if it turns out to be safe. They all had an injection within three weeks, a spokesperson for the ministry said. At the beginning of this year, 40,000 vaccines were already sent to healthcare providers.

The decision came after consultation between outgoing ministers Hugo de Jonge (Public Health) and Tamara van Ark (Medical Care) with chairpersons Ernst Kuipers (National Network Acute Care) and Ad Melkert (Dutch Association for Hospitals). Because the pressure on hospital care is still very high, hospitals cannot afford any (further) staff failure due to illness.

What’s the matter with the Janssen vaccine?

  • In the US, the only country that is already using Janssen, six reports of severe thrombosis plus platelet deficiency have been reported after vaccination.
  • Converted to one report per 1.17 million vaccinees.
  • Whether the disease is really due to the vaccine remains to be seen. When millions of people are vaccinated, some can also develop symptoms by chance shortly afterwards.
  • While that is being investigated, the US has shut down vaccinations.



If healthcare workers are vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine, they will also need to get a second shot. The ministry expects the second delivery to follow two weeks later. Only one dose was needed for Janssen’s vaccine.

The European medicines agency (EMA) will come Tuesday with conclusions in the research into the Janssen vaccine. After that, De Jonge makes a decision whether it can be used again in the Netherlands.

Union happy with decision

NU’91, a union for healthcare professionals, says in a response that it is very happy with the decision. “It is a very nice step”, says spokesman Michel van Erp. “More and more people must be added who can provide acute COVID-19 care, also because many people drop out.”

“The pressure from hospitals is extremely high. People no longer know what to do. In that sense it is logical that they are now being listened to, but that cannot be taken for granted”, says Van Erp.

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