Fauci calls Johnson & Johnson pause a 'very strong argument' for the safety of COVID-19 vaccines

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday addressed the FDA and the CDC's decision to recommend a pause of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine, arguing the move was not made "too quickly" and ultimately shows "how seriously we take safety."

Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, at a White House press conference spoke about the health agencies' recommendation that use of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine be paused while officials look into six blood clotting cases. He stressed that "this is a very rare event" given that 6.8 million doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been administered in the United States, though he argued that officials weren't "pulling the trigger too quickly" with the pause.

"This is an unusual occurrence of a serious, adverse event that you want to make sure, before you go forward, you investigate it thoroughly, and that's exactly what they're doing," Fauci said. "They're pausing so that they can look at it more carefully."

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The move to pause the Johnson & Johnson vaccine over such a rare occurrence prompted some criticism, though, as well as concerns that it could lead to greater vaccine hesitancy. But Fauci argued it should only make Americans more confident in the process.

"The fact that a pause was done I think just is a testimony to how seriously we take safety, and why we have an FDA and a CDC that looks at this very carefully and hopefully will resolve it pretty soon, within days to weeks," Fauci said. "...So I think it's a very strong argument for safety, actually."

Fauci also stressed that there have been "no red flag signals" from the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines even though they have already been administered to tens of millions of Americans, which shows that "you're dealing with a really safe vaccine."