Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies at the House Select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis on Capitol Hill in Washington, April 15, 2021.
Susan Walsh | Swimming pool | Reuters
White House Chief Medical Adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he believes the United States is likely to resume use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine with a warning or restriction attached.
Health regulators urge states on Tuesday to temporarily stop single-dose shooting of J&J after reports of six cases of rare blood clots in women in about 7 million people who received the vaccine in the United States
The cases occurred in women between the ages of 18 and 48, who developed symptoms six to 13 days after receiving the shot. The Food and Drug Administration said the recommendation to discontinue the vaccine was “out of an abundance of precaution”.
Fauci said he anticipates a decision on the J&J vaccine as early as Friday, when the advisory panel of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention meets to discuss resumption.
“My estimate is that we will continue to use it in one form or another,” Fauci said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I seriously doubt it if it just cancels it out. I don’t think it will happen. I think there will probably be some kind of warning or restriction or risk assessment.”
“I don’t think he’ll just come back and say, ‘Okay, everything’s fine. Go back immediately. “I think he’ll probably say,” Okay, we’ll use it, but be careful in these circumstances, “Fauci continued.
About 5% of the US vaccine supply is excluded due to the J&J shooting break. It is unclear how the break will affect the company’s goal of delivering 100 million doses across the country by the end of May.
White House Tsar Covid Jeff Zients said the shutdown will not have a significant impact on the U.S. vaccination program, which distributes enough Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to continue the current pace of about 3 million photos each day.
The country averages 3.3 million daily vaccine doses reported in the last week and 3 million when Pfizer and Moderna alone are counted. According to the CDC, only about 7.8 million of the 202 million photos given in the United States were from J&J.
“You don’t want to jump in front of you and decide that you know the full spectrum of this, which is one of the reasons they stopped and why we hope to know that on Friday,” Fauci said in an interview with CBS “Face the Nation.”
– Nate Rattner of CNBC contributed to the reporting