Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testified at the House Select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis on Capitol Hill, Washington, on April 15, 2021.
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The White House Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that he believes the U.S. is likely to resume use of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine with a warning or restriction attached.
Health regulators on Tuesday called on states to temporarily stop firing a single dose of J&J after reporting six cases of rare cerebral blood clots in women of nearly seven million people who received the vaccine in the U.S.
The cases occurred in women aged 18 to 48 years who showed symptoms six to 13 days after receiving the vaccine. The Food and Drug Administration said the recommendation to pause the vaccine was “very cautious.”
Fauci said he anticipates a decision on the J&J vaccine as early as Friday, when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine advisory panel meets to discuss the resumption.
“My estimate is that we will continue to use it in some way,” Fauci said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I doubt very seriously if they just cancel it. I don’t think that will happen. I think there will probably be some kind of alert or restriction or risk assessment.”
“I don’t think you just go back and say,‘ Okay, everything’s fine. Come back right away. ”I think he’ll probably say,“ Okay, we’ll use it, but be careful in these circumstances, ”Fauci continued.
About 5% of vaccine supplies in the United States are left out due to the pause in J&J firing. It is unclear how the break will affect the company’s goal of delivering 100 million doses nationwide by the end of May.
Covid Tsar Jeff Zients of the White House has said the arrest would not have a significant impact on the U.S. vaccination program, which distributes enough Pfizer and Modern vaccines to continue the current pace of about 3 million shots every day.
The country makes an average of 3.3 million daily doses of vaccine administered over the past week and 3 million when only Pfizer and Moderna are available. According to CDC data, only about 7.8 million of the 202 million shots fired in the U.S. have been from J&J.
“You don’t want to get ahead of yourself and decide that you know the full spectrum of that, which is one of the reasons they stopped and why I hope we know on Friday,” Fauci said during an interview on the network CBS. “Face the Nation.”
– CNBC’s Nate Rattner contributed the notification