Erie County, NY Executive Mark Poloncarz announced yesterday that all fans and staff at the Buffalo Bills’ NFL stadium must be vaccinated against COVID-19 in order to enter the facility. The same policy also extends to Buffalo Sabres fans.
On Twitter, Poloncarz wrote, “Erie County is in support of returning fans to the stadium and arena, this upcoming fall. The best way to do this is to ensure all fans are vaccinated!”
The tweet included a graphic which stated the county “supports returning all fans to stadium and arena for fall.” It says the way to achieve this is to “require all fans and staff to be fully vaccinated.”
“No vaccine=no entry,” the graphic stated.
3,298 new cases in the last 7 days.
Giving Erie county a rate of 359 total new cases per 100,000 residents in the past 7 days. Making a Erie County a "High-risk" for transmission zone. pic.twitter.com/rxktvw03sZ— Mark Poloncarz (@markpoloncarz) April 13, 2021
Poloncarz encouraged fans to apply to receive their passports. “
“You can apply now to receive your ‘Excelsior Pass,’ he wrote on Twitter. “There is a app you can download right on your cell phone. This app will show your shot records, and that you have been full vaccinated.”
In a media briefing, Poloncarz said religious and medical exemptions for the vaccine will not be accommodated.
“Some people are like, ‘Well that’s unfair,’ but there’s no God-given right to attend a football game,” he said.
The news of the mandatory vaccination requirement came on the same day the CDC and FDA recommended a “pause” on the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine following blood clot complications.
CDC and FDA Urge Pause on J&J Vaccine After “Rare and Severe” Blood Clots Occurred
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have issued a joint statement urging states to “pause” the use of the Johnson and Johnson COVID-19 vaccine after those who received it experienced severe blood clotting.
The statement reads, in part:
CDC and FDA are reviewing data involving six reported U.S. cases of a rare and severe type of blood clot in individuals after receiving the J&J vaccine. In these cases, a type of blood clot called cerebral venous sinus thrombosis (CVST) was seen in combination with low levels of blood platelets (thrombocytopenia). All six cases occurred among women between the ages of 18 and 48, and symptoms occurred 6 to 13 days after vaccination.
The statement called the side effect “extremely rare” and said the CDC would convene a meeting of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) tomorrow to review the cases further. The FDA will review the CDC’s analysis and also plans to investigate the cases. “Until that process is complete, we are recommending a pause in the use of this vaccine out of an abundance of caution,” reads the statement.
In the past week, administration of the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was halted at four different locations in Georgia, Colorado, Iowa and North Carolina after numerous adverse reactions, such as fainting and lightheadedness, occurred.
