ONALASKA, Wis. (WXOW) – The Johnson and Johnson vaccine pause caused uncertain people to cancel their appointments at the Omni Center clinic on Saturday.
Despite a number of cancelations, Vang Council of La Crosse board advisor Maichor Lee said she is optimistic about the people who were vaccinated.
The clinic distributed the Pfizer vaccine.
“Hopefully we’ll try to catchup with more people next time but I think so far for our first clinic I think it’s going so well,” Lee said.
“The J & J vaccine is still quite safe,” La Crosse County Health Department vaccination clinic manager Dr. Michael White said. “Yes there are those blood clotting issues but they’re extremely small very low numbers and the beauty of that one is it can be stored at a slightly higher temperature.”
Dr. White said these field clinics are the only way to get back to normal life.
“It’s up to us to protect our community, our partners, our friends and our family,” He said. “Not because somebody tells you you have to do it but because it’s the right thing to do.”
Lee works to make sure no language or location barriers prevent vaccine accessibility.
The health partners said they accept walk-ins at the clinics, especially if some people cancel their appointments and they have spare vaccines.
“I feel very happy and very proud that they we actually got the people that need it vaccinated,” Lee said. “Or that we actually did the education to get them vaccinated because a lot of them kind of have some vaccination hesitancy for some of our population as well.”
The next Omni Center clinic is on Saturday, May 15 and a third is scheduled on June 5 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
People can call 608-769-4286 or register here.