Fauci sees decision on US resuming J&J vaccine by Friday

A decision on whether to end a US pause in vaccinations with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 shot is likely by Friday, top US pandemic adviser Anthony Fauci says.

A government-convened expert panel has been assessing the vaccine’s possible links to a clotting disorder seen in a half-dozen relatively young women, none with previously known clotting disorders.

Meantime, the European Medicines Agency said Friday it expected to rule on the safety of Johnson & Johnson’s shot on Tuesday after evaluating data on blood clotting.

Fauci, in an interview on ABC’s “This Week,” said that by Friday “we should have an answer as to where we’re going with it. I would think that we’re not going to go beyond Friday in the extension of this pause.”

While saying he did not want to get ahead of the expert panel convened by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Fauci notes that the clotting disorder was “an extraordinarily rare event.”

“I believe we’ll get back with it,” he says, though possibly with some restrictions or warnings on its use.