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A Decision on How to Vaccinate Americans Again with the A faster timeline than other health officials have indicated, the shot of Johnson and Johnson’s coronavirus is likely to arrive by Friday, according to the U.S. Department of Infectious Diseases.
Anthony Fauci spoke when the US reached a vaccination milestone: the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on its website Sunday that more than half of people aged 18 and older now had at least one dose of Covid-19.
“I very seriously doubt whether they are just canceling the J&J vaccine, one of three approved for use in the US,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Sunday. NBC’s “Meet the Press” said. talk show interviews.
It would be surprising “if we do not have a resume in some form on Friday,” he adds on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “One of the possibilities would be to bring it back, but to do so with some restriction or warning.”
U.S. health officials interrupts the use of the J&J Covid-19 shots while searching for more information on a rare side effect. Six American women who received the shots developed a severe form of blood clotting six to 13 days after vaccination.
On Thursday, public health officials concluded a meeting on the vaccine without voices. CDC advisers said they did not have enough information to make recommendations on how to respond to reports of blood clots.
According to lawyer Rochelle Walensky, the director of the agency, the advisory committee for immunization practices will resume on Friday.
“I would think we’re not going beyond Friday in the extension of this break,” Fauci said on ABC’s This Week.
However, the head of the CDC panel, who is expected to make a recommendation on whether to resume the J&J recordings, said on Thursday that more data was needed and that it was possible that the break would take a few weeks. can last.
“If we make the wrong decision about this, it will affect our credibility and credibility of the vaccine safety system,” Jose Romero said in an interview with Bloomberg News. “So it’s very important that we get it right.”
CDC adviser sees potential for longer break on J&J vaccine
Fauci told CBS that any new guidelines on the vaccine could be gender-based, “but we do not know yet”. “You do not want to outdo yourself and assume that you know the full spectrum of this,” he said.
The six cases investigated were reported in women between the ages of 18 and 48 years, raising questions about whether the syndrome mainly affects women or young people in general.
“I do think there will probably be a warning, restriction or risk assessment,” Fauci told NBC.
Booster Shots
South Africa’s health regulator asked its government on Saturday to take a break on the Johnson & Johnson shots provided certain conditions are met.
Separately, Fauci, a leading adviser to President Joe Biden, said officials would “soon” – probably by the end of the summer – determine whether people vaccinated against Covid might need to take shots or new vaccines put on them. aimed at tribes.
Officials with vaccine makers Modern en Pfizer has indicated that a booster dose may be required, or that the Covid vaccines become annual events such as flu shots, but Fauci on NBC said such a call would be a ‘public health decision’.
“It’s not going to be a decision that will be made by a pharmaceutical company,” he said. ‘We’re partnering with them because they deliver. This will be a decision of the FDA-CDC. ”
On CNN, Fauci added that the U.S. will be prepared for coronavirus variants, “by increasing the current vaccine, or with a variety-specific vaccine.”
Some The CDC said on its website on Sunday that 50.4% of people aged 18 and older have had at least one diagnosis since the first shots were approved, and 32.5% in that age group have been fully vaccinated.
Under CDC, 81% had the greatest risk of complications if they contracted Covid-19, and 81% had a first dose and nearly 66% were fully vaccinated.
The U.S. should be able to vaccinate children “of virtually any age” by the first quarter of 2022, Fauci told CNN.
– With help from Tony Czuczka and Yueqi Yang
(Updates with CDC vaccine milestone in second paragraph.)