Dr. Anthony Fauci said he hopes the temporary pause on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine raised Americans’ confidence in federal agencies’ concern for safety, rather than increased vaccine hesitancy.<\/p>\n
“The CDC and the FDA are the gold standard for both safety and the evaluation of efficacy, I think in the long run what we’re going to see — we’ll probably see it soon — is that people will realize that we take safety very seriously,” the White House chief medical adviser told “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.<\/p>\n
“We’ve looked at it. Now let’s get back and get people vaccinated. And that’s what we’re going to be doing, get as many people vaccinated as we possibly can,” Fauci added.<\/p>\n
On Friday, an independent government advisory panel voted in favor of resuming Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations but with a new general warning about the potential of extremely rare but serious blood clots. The Centers of Disease and Control and the Federal Drug Administration officially lifted the 10-day pause following the panel recommendation, issuing new fact sheets about potential side effects to medical providers and J&J vaccine recipients.<\/p>\n
According to the CDC, 15 confirmed cases of rare blood clots were reported so far after nearly 8 million administered Johnson & Johnson shots. All of the cases reported were in women under 60, and three died.<\/p>\n
“COVID-19 infection carries a much higher risk of blood clots \u2014 147,000 in 1 million hospitalized COVID-19 patients experience clots, compared to roughly two in 1 million individuals who received the J&J vaccine,” American Society of Hematology President Martin S. Tallman, MD, said in a statement Friday after the pause was lifted.<\/p>\n
Stephanopoulos asked Fauci to address a small population of people resistant to mass vaccinations, including Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who this week suggested on a radio show it’s not important for everyone to get a vaccine.<\/p>\n
“What’s your response to that?” Stephanopoulos asked Fauci.<\/p>\n
“If you look at the numbers there’s been about 570,000, Americans have died (of COVID-19),” Fauci responded. “We have a highly efficacious and effective vaccine that’s really very, very safe. That is the reason why you want everyone to get vaccinated, so I don’t understand the argument.”<\/p>\n
Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci if the United States should do more to help India, a country suffering with new record COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.<\/p>\n
“Their health care system could collapse if the situation doesn’t improve, what more can the United States be doing right now to help address this crisis?” Stephanopoulos asked.<\/p>\n
“We really do need to do more, I mean I don’t think you can walk away from that,” Fauci said. “Even as we speak, George, there is discussions about really ramping up what we can do on the ground.”<\/p>\n
“We have about 30 million doses of that AstraZeneca vaccine that aren’t approved for use here. Should we just be sending that over?” Stephanopoulos pressed.<\/p>\n
Stressing he did not want to speak directly on policy, Fauci responded, “I think that’s going to be something that is up for active consideration.”<\/p>\n