Hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration recommended a break from providing the Johnson & Johnson vaccine because of side effects in six women, Dr. Anthony Fauci spoke with “CBS Evening News” about the decision. means. .
The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.
CBS News: People who just got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are concerned. What should they pay attention to?
Dr. Anthony Fauci: Well, it depends when they have it. This side effect appears to occur between six days and 13 days. So if you’ve had it a month or two ago, I guess you don’t have to worry about anything. If you’ve been vaccinated in a week or two, remember one thing – this is a very rare occurrence. It’s less than one in a million. That said, you still want to be on the lookout for some symptoms, such as a severe headache, some movement difficulties, or some chest discomfort and difficulty breathing.
These are women of childbearing age. Does this suggest it could be hormonal?
Absolutely and that’s one of the things we want to explore. Similar symptoms have occurred during pregnancy. Blood clotting abnormalities are known in women taking birth control pills, so there may certainly be a hormonal aspect to them.
Do you think birth control can play a role?
We do not know that. And that is one of the questions that will be asked of these people. Was there a commonality between people taking birth control pills? We don’t know the answer at this point.
You pointed out that this is a less than one in a million chance that you will have this. It’s very, very rare. But will this fuel vaccine hesitation?
Well, that is certainly a concern. The question that is often asked, does this have anything to do with the other vaccines, the mRNAs, from Moderna and from Pfizer? You know, absolutely not. Because you’re looking at it, 121 million people have received at least one dose of a vaccine. Only 6.85 million of them were J&J. The rest were Moderna and Pfizer, and there is no negative or unfavorable signal or red flag coming from any of those vaccines, which is very good news. In other words, they are very safe.