The White House brought out Dr. Fauci and coordinator Jeff Zients to offer reassurances
Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, and Jeff Zients, the White House coordinator for the COVID-19 response, were added to the daily press briefing on Tuesday.
Zients argued that the pause would not lead to a major hit to the U.S. vaccination effort.
“Let me start by saying this announcement will not have a significant impact on our vaccination program,” he said. “The J&J vaccine makes up less than 5 percent of the more 190 million reported shots in arms in the United States to date.”
There are 28 million doses of the other two vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna, going out this week.
“We have more than enough supply of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines to continue the current pace of about 3 million shots per day,” Zients said.
Separately, President Biden also weighed in: “My message to the American people on the vaccine is, I told y’all I made sure we have 600 million doses” of the mRNA vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, Biden said in the Oval Office.
“There is enough vaccine, that is basically 100 percent unquestionable, for every single solitary American,” Biden added.