Telluride Med Center: Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Now Available

25 Jun Telluride Med Center: Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Now Available

The Telluride Regional Medical Center now has access to Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines to offer patients during regularly scheduled primary care visits, as well as at clinics held twice weekly, Wednesdays and Fridays, throughout the summer.

If you’d like to make an appointment for a Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, or would like to discuss the vaccine with your provider, please call the Medical Center at 970.728.3848.

“We have patients who are hesitant or on the fence about receiving a vaccine,” said Dr. Christine Mahoney, primary care director. “We now have the ability to have intimate conversations with those patients, to answer their questions, and to offer them a vaccine in-house should they decide to go this route. We understand there’s a lot of information out there. People need time and resources to process this decision. We are available to talk through the vaccine with our patients.”

About the J&J Vaccine

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single-dose shot in the arm, is the third COVID-19 vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use in the United States. It is available to anyone 18 years and older though women younger than 50 years old should especially be aware of the rare risk of blood clots with low platelets after vaccination. There are other COVID-19 vaccines available for which this risk has not been seen.

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine was 66.3% effective in clinical trials at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness in people who had no evidence of prior infection. People had the most protection 2 weeks after getting vaccinated.

The vaccine had high efficacy at preventing hospitalization and death in people who did get sick. No one who got COVID-19 at least 4 weeks after receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine COVID-19 vaccine had to be hospitalized, according to the CDC.

Early evidence suggests that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine might provide protection against asymptomatic infection, which is when a person is infected by the virus that causes COVID-19, but does not get sick.

Schedule a vaccine or consultation

To schedule an appointment with a primary care provider or to secure a slot at an upcoming Wednesday or Friday clinic (from 1:30 – 2:30p) at the adjacent Interim Depot Clinic, call 970.728.3848.

Office visits are billed to insurance; the vaccine is free, as are the vaccine clinics, which are held twice weekly from 1:30 – 2:30pm.

In addition to fielding questions about possible vaccine side effects or how the vaccine came to be in record time, Dr. Mahoney asks her patients to consider their individual risks for complications from COVID-19.

“Things like age, BMI, respiratory health and preexisting conditions and also the complications on the table for the people closest to you.”

COVID Risks v. Vaccine Risks

“There’s no one here saying there are zero risks associated with COVID vaccines. There are still many unknowns — even now, more than a year into clinical studies — but we have to also look at the risks of COVID-19, which are of course far more known.”

Over 600,000 Americans have lost their lives to COVID-19. Last week the county lost their first resident to the virus.

According to the San Miguel County Department of Health dashboard, nearly 85 percent of locals, age 12 and older, have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, well above the national average for the same demographics is 62 percent.