Six weeks ago, Humble was notified by the county health director of the extra
Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccines. His first thought was to send them to Sonora.
“I thought of Sonora right away because they’re our partners,” said Humble, a former state health director.
Humble said it would be “super bad optics” for the HHS to deny waiving the PREP Act.
“After they (waive the PREP Act), the logistics would be pretty simple: All you need to do is get the vaccine, maintain the cold chain, get it to the consulate, or a single consulate in Arizona, who could then take custody of it, and move it across the border and get it to the Sonoran health department or the hospitals or however they’re gonna use it down in Mexico. So the barriers aren’t logistics at all; the barriers are administrative.”
Arizona Congress members, health officials want expiring COVID-19 vaccines to go to Sonora, Mexico Andrew Favakeh, Arizona Republic
Congress members, health officials and organizations want to send Arizona s expiring Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccines to struggling Sonora, Mexico, but they are running into bureaucratic and legal roadblocks.
After the Johnson & Johnson Janssen vaccine was halted temporarily because of potentially causing severe blood clots in 15 patients all women, three of whom died trust in the COVID-19 vaccine nationwide plunged, said Will Humble, executive director of the Arizona Public Health Association.
“There are still people that like the J and J vaccine, but the demand for it really dropped,” Humble said. “And you can’t send it back to the testing center; once you have it, you have it.”