Despite being a small fraction of New Jersey's vaccine allotment, Johnson & Johnson's one-shot COVID vaccine has played an important role in vaccinating some of the state's most at-risk residents.
But those efforts to inoculate homeless people, the homebound, senior citizens and other vulnerable groups are now stalled for at least a week as federal health officials investigate whether the J&J vaccine caused an extremely rare but serious side effect.
"Each day that we don't have that vaccine is another day when we can't serve the people as we want to," said Howard Haughton, CEO of Eva's Village in Paterson, one of North Jersey's largest social service organizations for homeless people.