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For government employees subject to Gov. Inslee’s vaccine mandate, the deadline to receive two-dose Pfizer or Moderna shots is here. Access to the alternative, single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine is currently limited in some parts of Washington state.

Most state, health care, and education employees must be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 per mandates from Gov. Jay Inslee鈥檚 office. This leaves only a matter of days to receive the first Pfizer dose, while the deadline to receive the first Moderna dose has technically passed.

The definition of 鈥渇ully vaccinated鈥� accounts for the 14 days needed to build the requisite immune response after the second dose, meaning employees under the mandate should receive the second dose by Oct. 4. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Moderna vaccine requires that its two doses be administered 28 days apart. That would mean the first Moderna shot for employees hoping to be fully vaccinated by Oct. 18 should have been administered on Sept. 6 at the latest.

The Pfizer vaccine requires only 21 days of waiting between its doses. That leaves Sept. 13 as the last day to receive its first dose.

State employees inch closer to deal with Gov. Inslee on vaccine mandate

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine requires only a single dose. However, the state鈥檚 supply is in question.

UW Medicine currently only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine through in-patient programs. Its J&J vaccine supply is stretched.

鈥淭he CDC and the state have not been able to order any new J&J vaccine for over a month,鈥� UW Medicine鈥檚 Chief Pharmacy Officer Dr. Steven Fijalka told MyNorthwest. 鈥淣o new supplies have come into the state since then. We exhausted our supply a week or two ago.鈥�

Fijalka has seen an increase in demand for the Johnson and Johnson vaccine recently in light of the vaccine mandate.

鈥淲ith the mandate of the governor, our employees who might not have originally decided to get vaccinated want the J&J because it鈥檚 only one shot,鈥� Fijalka said. 鈥淭here hasn鈥檛 been a new J&J vaccine available in the state for some time. Most organizations are either low or running out due to its expiration date.鈥�

He clarified that the availability issue is less due to demand, and more how to best economize the vaccine鈥檚 administration. The Johnson and Johnson vaccine comes in a five dose vial, and when that vial is opened for a single vaccine, the remaining four expire within six hours.

鈥淭he request is that if anyone wants a vaccine, you give them a vaccine, no matter what the wastage is,鈥� Fijalka said. 鈥淲e try to schedule patients as best we can, but often what happens is you give a patient a dose, and you have to waste the other four. While the demand may not be that large, the wastage is higher than you would like to see. It usually expires about six hours after you open a vial. We try to maximize the use out of the vial, but if somebody comes through the emergency department and they鈥檙e the only one, they need the vaccine.鈥�

The state Department of Health clarified the Johnson and Johnson vaccine supply currently available.

鈥淎s of Sept. 7, there are a total of 53,031 doses of J&J vaccine available in Washington state,鈥� a Washington State Department of Health spokesperson wrote to MyNorthwest. 鈥淰accine ordering for J&J will reopen tomorrow, Sept. 8. At this time, the CDC has instated an ordering cap of 200 doses of J&J per order per facility each week.鈥�

According to information received from the state鈥檚 Office of Financial Management, vaccine mandates will affect roughly 62,000 employees of various state agencies, 150,000 workers in K-12 schools and child care programs, 71,000 in higher education institutions, and 400,000 statewide health care and long-term care workers.

鈥淭he state is only going to get so much,鈥� Fijalka added. 鈥淚f everyone out there orders 200 doses, the state is going to have to make some decisions.鈥�