Fauci: 'We're Weeks Away' From Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Approval
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday he thinks the U.S. is only a few weeks away from seeing approval of coronavirus vaccines made by Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.
"Very soon, I would imagine within a period of a week or so or at the most a couple of weeks," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on "Meet the Press." "They are going to be getting their data together and showing it to the FDA. We're weeks away. Not months away, for sure."
As of Monday morning, Jan. 18, more than 396,000 people have died from coronavirus in the U.S. and a total of more than 23,909,000 cases have been reported, according to The Washington Post.
Johnson & Johnson has long said that it expects to receive results from its third and final clinical vaccine trial in January.
So far, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are the only two that have been given emergency-use approval from the FDA; both those vaccines require two shots spaced 21 days apart.
Johnson & Johnson's vaccine is very different than Monderna's and Pfizer's: It functions more like a traditional vaccine in that it puts a strain of the adenovirus into the body, according to the CDC. Adenovirus is the virus that causes a common cold.
Pfizer and Moderna are mRNA vaccines, which is new vaccine technology. Instead of injecting a virus, as traditional vaccines do, mRNA vaccines alter or teach cells to make a spike protein and thus trigger an immune response that creates antibodies. Read the CDC's explanation of how mRNA vaccines work.
On Sunday, California's top state epidemiologist, Dr. Erica Pan, told health officials to pause using a specific Moderna vaccine batch due to "a higher-than-usual number of possible allergic reactions reported" with that specific lot being given out at a community vaccine site.
"Fewer than 10 individuals required medical attention over the span of 24 hours," said Dr. Pan in a statement. "Out of an extreme abundance of caution and also recognizing the extremely limited supply of vaccine, we are recommending that providers use other available vaccine inventory and pause the administration of vaccines from Moderna Lot 041L20A until the investigation by the CDC, FDA, Moderna and the state is complete. We will provide an update as we learn more."
More than 330,000 doses of that specific Moderna lot have been given out without incident, she said.
Another key difference is that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine only requires one shot, and it does not not have to be stored at such cold temperatures. Health officials say that once the single-shot vaccines are approved, it will greatly increase the speed of vaccine roll-out.
As of Monday, more than 14 million people have been vaccinated in the U.S. so far, according to Bloomberg News. Dr. Fauci was one; he received the vaccine Dec. 22. After a slow roll-out, the pace of vaccinations has now begun to pick up speed: The U.S. averaged 898,410 shots per day in the past week, according to Bloomberg.
Incoming President Joe Biden has the goal of vaccinating 100 million people in Biden's first 100 days. Fauci said Sunday that goal is doable.
Fauci also said that reports of a spent vaccine stockpile was "just a misunderstanding."
Both Trump and Biden said they wanted to release the entire stockpile of the vaccine, but it was then revealed last week that the stockpile was empty and had already been released. Outgoing President Trump lowered the threshold of who can get the vaccine, allowing those older than 65 to now be eligible.
"I think there was just a misunderstanding," said Fauci Sunday on "Meet the Press." "In the beginning, when it wasn't quite clear about what the cadence of the rolling-out of doses would be, there was a lot of caution. He (Gen. Gustave Perna, who runs the Trump administration’s vaccine roll-out) wanted to make sure that everyone who got a first dose got a second dose. So when doses were released, an equal amount was kept back."
This article originally appeared on the Washington DC Patch
