Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said he hoped for a decision “quite soon” on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as local governments shifted to more complicated two-dose vaccines for marginal populations.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci said on Thursday that he hoped the nation would soon be able to resume use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, as a “pause” that now looks indefinite threatened to upend vaccination efforts overseas and in some of the most marginalized communities in the United States. Dr. Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical adviser for the pandemic, made the comment during a hearing of the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis, where he and other top federal health officials implored Americans to continue to get vaccinated and sought to reassure the nation that all three federally authorized vaccines are safe. “Hopefully we’ll get a decision quite soon, as to whether or not we can get back on track with this very effective vaccine,” Dr. Fauci told the panel. With cases rising in the Midwest, he added, the nation is in a “precarious situation” and it is imperative to vaccinate “as many people as quickly and as expeditiously as we possible can.” But it was increasingly clear that a suspension that initially was to last two to three days would be considerably longer, as officials wrestled with reports of at least six rare cases of blood clotting among women immunized with the Johnson & Johnson shot. Federal health agencies are trying to decide whether to recommend that doctors resume use of the vaccine, possibly with new restrictions. The vaccine has not been a major component of the Biden administration’s vaccination campaign. About 7.7 million Americans have received the Johnson & Johnson shot, accounting for fewer than 4 percent of the more than 198 million doses administered across the country. But while those numbers are small, many of the people the vaccine has been targeted at are vulnerable: homeless people in Baltimore, homebound residents in the District of Columbia, the poor and uninsured in Massachusetts, rural residents in a number of states. All are populations easier to reach with a single dose than the two-dose regimen of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. About 10 million doses shipped to the states are now on shelves awaiting a decision. And many people who might not seek out a shot but could have been reached with mobile clinics and concerted outreach may be left behind, at least for now. “There is a great deal of work going on with all of our vaccinators, providers around the state and with our team at the Minnesota Department of Health trying to help plan and shifting things around. It is a series of dominoes, obviously,” said Jan Malcolm, Minnesota’s health commissioner. “We very much regret the clinics that had to be canceled on short notice because of the pause in J&J, and that will continue to be an issue in the coming couple of weeks.” The White House press secretary, Jen Psaki, again calibrated President Biden’s promise that he would secure enough vaccine for all American adults by the end of May. Now, the White House is emphasizing that all adults who want a vaccine will get one. “That means that by the end of May, for about 80 percent of the population, by the end of July about 90 percent of the population,” Ms. Psaki told reporters. In Lexington, Ky., a Johnson & Johnson clinic for Friday was canceled, leaving around 400 people without appointments. All were offered a last-minute option to get a Moderna vaccine, but only about 65 accepted the offer, said Kevin Hall, a spokesman for the Lexington-Fayette County Health Department.
