WASHINGTON – Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Sunday that he was hopeful that public health experts would provide a roadmap for the inflamed Johnson & Johnson vaccine by the end of this week and said he believed it would not be completely taken out of circulation, although there new news is. warnings attached.
Last week, officials recommended a temporary halt in the use of the vaccine following a possible link with a handful of cases of rare blood clots. This Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccination advisory committee will investigate further details on these concerns.
Fauci said he hoped the United States would be back on track with the vaccine after the meeting, but conceded that there could be new restrictions or warnings related to the use of the vaccine against Johnson & Johnson. .
“Everything is on the table,” he said in an interview with Meet the Press.
“My estimate is that we will use it in some form,” said Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser. ‘I seriously doubt if they’ll just cancel it. I do not think this is going to happen. I do think that there will probably be a warning, restriction or risk assessment. I do not think it’s just going to go back and say, ‘OK, everything’s fine. Go back right. “I think it would probably say, ‘OK, we’ll use it, but be careful under certain circumstances.’
U.S. health regulators recommended the break after concerns arose about a small handful of cases of blood clots that developed in women shortly after receiving the vaccine, which was approved for emergency use. So far, the data suggest that blood clots are extremely rare, with only a handful of possible cases out of the more than 6.8 million doses of the vaccine being administered in the US.
But Fauci noted that the normal treatment of other blood clots could aggravate this particular problem, saying the break also gave time to notify doctors of the possible dangerous complication.
“There’s a twofold reason for doing so: one, to stop and look at it in more detail,” Fauci said of the rare blood clots, “and two, to make sure the physicians appropriate people. treat.’
With the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine provisionally on the sidelines, the US is relying on vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna, which have been the cornerstone of the country’s vaccination strategy. As of Saturday, more than 205.8 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered in the United States and more than 82 million people have been fully vaccinated.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told reporters this month that he believes a third dose of the vaccine is likely to be needed within the next year.
“It’s going to be a public health decision. This is not going to be a decision made by a pharmaceutical company. We are partners with them because they deliver it. It will be a decision of the FDA / CDC, ‘he said.
“The CDC will use its immunization practice advisory committee as they always do.”