BUFFALO (WBEN) - As the United States pauses the Johnson & Johnson vaccine rollout to review six cases of rare blood clotting, SUNY too is pausing much of its vaccination program.
New York State recently began providing doses directly to SUNY campuses in an attempt to get more young people vaccinated, allocating 21,000 doses for SUNY students and 14,000 for private colleges.
"Today was a little bit of a curve ball for us with the Johnson & Johnson vaccination," said SUNY Chancellor Jim Malatras Tuesday. "We hope it's a temporary pause - we're following the FDA and CDC guidance, as well as the New York State Department of Health guidance to just see what's going on."
UB was sent 200 doses of the J&J vaccine as part of the program (the school did not receive any Phizer or Moderna doses), and Wednesday would have been the first day of distribution at the student union.
A spokesperson for the school said that they have paused their vaccine program and are waiting to hear from SUNY about the potential for other vaccines to be available for distribution.
"We like the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because it's one and done - it was very easy for our residential students to get one shot and then go home for the semester," Malatras continued. "We're going to see where we are this week to see if we get more vaccines, if the federal government and the state says it's okay to proceed again with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine."
The UB spokesperson added that students should continue to try to register for off-campus vaccine appointments.
Malatras was also asked about the possibility of a vaccine mandate for students to return to campus next fall.
"Right now, our students are being vaccinated every day on our campuses, and we think that's how we can get it done," he said. "But...we're going to see where we are in the early summertime, and we will cross that bridge of potentially doing a mandatory vaccine if we don't see enough people getting vaccinated."
