Fauci predicts J&J vaccine to come back to market with restrictions or warnings by Friday

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday that he expects a decision to be made about the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine by Friday, predicting the vaccine would come back on the market with restrictions or warnings.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the CDC and the FDA and the advisory committee, but I would imagine that what we will say is: that it would come back and it would come back in some sort of either warning or restriction,” he told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.”

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) is scheduled to meet on Friday to discuss recommendations for the J&J vaccine. The CDC and the Food and Drug Administration recommended pausing the use of the J&J Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday over six reported cases of “a rare and severe type of blood clot” reported in the US.

However, Fauci said pausing was the prudent thing to do, saying that “you want to make sure that you have all the information that you need.”

He compared the J&J clotting reports to that of the AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which is authorized in much of Europe and has had similar reports of clotting. He noted the AstraZeneca vaccine reports “went beyond just women, there’s some with some men involved. There was also a great display of the ages.”

Fauci told Bash he hopes a decision is made by Friday and that a decision is needed “one way or the other”

The ACIP committee originally held an emergency meeting on Wednesday last week but delayed voting on a recommendation until this coming Friday.