The Johnson & Johnson one-dose COVID-19 vaccine is available to students, faculty and staff.
To receive the dose, students must log in through the ASU Health Portal, select appointments on the left-hand menu, click "schedule an appointment," select "Medical appointments with Health Services - including COVID19 Saliva Testing and COVID Vaccinations," scroll to the bottom of the page to select "JJ Visit - COVID-19 Vaccination" and then sign a consent form to schedule the appointment to receive the vaccine.
Students can then receive the dose at ASU Health Services clinics across all four metro Phoenix campuses. Staff can schedule an appointment through the Health Portal but will receive their dose at a separate health clinic for employees.
A University spokesperson could not answer in time for publication how ASU had obtained the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccines for students, how many students had registered to receive the vaccine, how long they would be available or provide any other additional information.
At the beginning of the spring semester, ASU opened a COVID-19 vaccine site at the Sun Devil Fitness Complex in Tempe where staff could receive the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. As of April 1, the site has distributed 11,882 vaccines so far this semester, with 7,491 being fully vaccinated with both of the required doses for the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, a spokesperson said.
In total, 12,914 ASU community members have been vaccinated, with 8,377 having received both doses, the spokesperson said. There are 62 active COVID-19 cases among staff, faculty and students across ASU's campuses, according to a University update Monday.
The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is 66.3% effective in clinical trials, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is lower than the Moderna and Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. Nonetheless, the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is considered safe and highly effective and has the benefit of being easier to distribute due to it only requiring one dose and being easier to store, according to NPR.
"The most commonly reported side effects were pain at the injection site, headache, fatigue, muscle aches and nausea. Most of these side effects were mild to moderate in severity and lasted 1-2 days," said the Food and Drug Administration's press release announcing its approval of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine, the third COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. to be approved.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 7:18 p.m. on April 6, 2021, to clarify where ASU employees can receive the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine.
Reach the reporter at wmyskow@asu.edu and follow @wmyskow on Twitter.
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Wyatt Myskow is the project manager at The State Press, where he oversees enterprise stories for the publication. He also works at The Arizona Republic, where he covers the cities of Peoria and Surprise.
