Patient Portal

COVID Vaccine News

The latest on COVID-19 vaccines (April 19, 2021) 

  • Grants Pass Clinic is giving COVID vaccines
    • We now have all the vaccines we can handle, so we’re giving COVID vaccines to any Josephine County residents age 16 and older.
  • We are giving the Pfizer vaccine
    • The 3 vaccines with emergency use authorization in the U.S. are made by Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson. With the Johnson & Johnson vaccine being temporarily withheld from the market, we’re giving the Pfizer vaccine. It’s given as 2 shots, 3 weeks apart.
  • What’s the deal with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine?     
    • A very small number of patients (<10 out of nearly 7,000,000 vaccine recipients) developed a blood clotting disorder within 2 weeks of receiving the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, so the CDC and FDA have recommended a ”pause” in the use of the vaccine until this can be better understood. This problem has not been reported with the more than 180,000,000 doses of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, so we’re still using those. Because of the way the vaccine is made, this complication is likely to be from only the Johnson & Johnson vaccine or the AstraZeneca vaccine, which hasn’t gotten U.S. approval. The complications may turn out to be unrelated, but the FDA and CDC want to be sure.
  • How do I schedule a vaccine?
    • Go online to grantspassclinic.com to sign up or call us at 541-476-6644 and get transferred to the COVID vaccine hotline. Then you can schedule and answer the questions required to get the vaccine, or leave your name and number and we will call you to schedule a date and time. We also take walk-ins at the theater, but an appointment works better.
  • Where are the vaccines being given?
    • For now the Southgate Cinema (across Ringuette Street from Grants Pass Clinic) has generously agreed to let us use their building. You will come in the front door, get your shot in the lobby (in the arm), and then wait in one of the theaters for 15 or 30 minutes before leaving. You must be watched for a while to be sure you don’t have an allergic reaction. Unfortunately, no movie while you are waiting.
    • When the theater gets back to normal operations, we’ll be moving to either Grants Pass Clinic or the Fairgrounds.
  • How much does it cost?
    • Nothing is free, but the vaccine has already been purchased by the federal government and our costs are covered by the County so we aren’t charging for the vaccine or its administration. We won’t bill you or your insurance company anything.
  • What about vaccine supply shortages?
    • What we have is a demand shortage: not enough people are getting the vaccine. The disease has killed 1 out of every 50 county residents who have been diagnosed with COVID (62 deaths out of 3063 cases as of April 19), so getting the vaccine is clearly the smart thing to do. The vaccine is way easier than having even a mild case of the disease.