Fauci Defends Halting J&J Vaccine: ‘I Don’t Think it Was Pulling the Trigger too Quickly’

Dr. Anthony Fauci defended Tuesday’s recommendation for a “pause” on the distribution of Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine, even as he assured reporters that those who had already received it would be “OK.”

“The pause not only allows us to take a look at the cases and learn more, but it is also a signal out there to help the physicians,” Fauci said, referencing a recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration that distribution of J&J’s vaccine temporarily end. Officials are investigating a “rare and severe” blood clot that developed in six women after they had received the vaccine, including one who died.

Fauci said the approximately 6.85 million Americans had already received the vaccine had little to worry about. “Someone who maybe had it a month or two ago would say, what does this mean for me? It really doesn’t mean anything. You’re OK, because if you look at the … timeframe when this occurs, it’s pretty tight, from a few days, six to 13 days, from the time of the vaccination.”

Asked by a reporter whether officials “weighed the benefits” of the pause against potential harms — including the possibility that it may make some people less inclined to get a vaccine — Fauci said the decision was made out of an “abundance of caution,” and leaned on Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients to provide mathematical estimates. Zients said 25 million doses of vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J were being distributed to states on a weekly basis leading up to Tuesday’s pause, a number that exceeded the 3 million injections distributed each day.

“Did we pull the trigger too soon on this because it was such a rare event?” Fauci said, summarizing the question. “Well, you know, our FDA is internationally known for their capability of making sure that we have the safest products out there. and that’s what I meant when I said an ‘abundance’ of caution. … We want to get this worked out as quickly as we possibly can, and that’s why you see the word ‘pause.

“We want to hold off for a bit and very well may go back … maybe with some conditions, or maybe not, but we want to leave that up to the FDA and the CDC to investigate this carefully,” he added. “I don’t think it was pulling the trigger too quickly.

Watch above via CNN.