Los Angeles County inoculation efforts continue amid pause on Johnson & Johnson vaccine

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The fallout from the nationwide pause of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine distribution is creating a domino effect in the effort to get herd immunity, including in Los Angeles County.

In L.A. County, around 5,600 people this week were bumped from their timeslots now that the one-shot vaccine is no longer available.

"For the few thousands of people that we do need to reschedule, we will be prioritizing them for next week for the Moderna and for the Pfizer doses, so that in fact they're able to get vaccinated as quickly as possible given that their appointments were canceled," L.A. County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said.

The cancellations come as L.A. County is scheduled to open up vaccination appointments to residents age 16 and older starting Thursday. Already, the county health website shows no available timeslots in the immediate future.

Ferrer says if residents aren't able to book an appointment through the county website, she suggests trying local pharmacies.

Meanwhile, the work to bring available Moderna and Pfizer doses to underserved communities isn't stopping.

On Wednesday, director Ava DuVernay's film collective ARRAY helped hundreds of people get vaccinated in Historic Filipinotown.

In Burbank, Kedren Health brought a mobile clinic straight to employees of a local dry cleaner.

"If you have a workforce, ideally over 50 people, we will arrange transportation," said Dr. Jerry Abraham of Kedren Health. "We will come to you with vaccines, and we will vaccinate them at work."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Food and Drug Administration put a pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after six women developed a rare, but severe blood clotting complication.

One of the women died and another is in critical condition.

On Wednesday, the committee investigating those rare cases said they're not going to lift the pause immediately. They say they plan on meeting again in 10 days.

The group needs to review more data, and the CDC says more cases could pop up.