Q&A: Could I sign up for a specific vaccine?

Q. Where could I sign up to get the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? I’m 70 years old. — W.K.

A. Some readers have been asking how they can get a dose specifically of this latest vaccine to prevent COVID-19, which is also called the Janssen vaccine, a reference to the division that developed it. Some people may prefer to get a vaccine that requires just one dose.

Vaccine remains in demand, and the guidance from presidential adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci on down to local health officials is to accept whichever type is available.

Local jurisdictions running vaccination sites “are taking what they get from the state, just as we are taking what we can get from the federal government,” without preference for one vaccine over the other, said Caleb Cage, who directs Nevada’s COVID-19 response.

“We would ask people to sign up for an appointment and please take the vaccine that is offered to you,” Cage said. “We discourage anything that would be shopping or looking around or anything like that because we need to get the communities throughout the state vaccinated.”

Information about the vaccine being administered is provided on-site at vaccination locations run by the Southern Nevada Health District. But the information generally isn’t available to the public in advance.

“Vaccine availability is dependent on the allotments we receive, and we are not able to provide that information in advance,” said district spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore.

Eventually, as vaccine allocations become more reliable and the resource less scarce, people may be able to be more choosy.

“We’re definitely at a place where when we look in the future of the response, when the supply definitely outweighs the demand, there may be some choice,” said state vaccine official Candice McDaniel.

But authorities strongly advise against waiting if you have a chance to get a vaccine now.

“The longer we kind of allow infection to go on in the community, the more chance for these (coronavirus) variants to arise and to take hold,” said Dr. Mark Riddle, associate dean of clinical research at the School of Medicine at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a vaccine consultant to the World Health Organization and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

”Nationally and locally, we ought to be trying to really vaccinate as quickly as possible as many people as possible, so that these variants don’t take hold,” Riddle said.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0336. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.