Fauci on Johnson & Johnson vaccine temporary pause:'We take safety very seriously'

"Now let us return and get individuals vaccinated," he added.

Dr. Anthony Fauci stated he expects the temporary drop on the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine raised Americans' confidence in federal agencies' concern for safety, rather than increased pesticide hesitancy.

"The CDC and the FDA would be the golden standard for both safety and the evaluation of efficiency, I believe in the long term what we are going to see -- we will probably see it soon -- is that people will realize we take safety very seriously," that the White House chief medical adviser told"This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

"We've looked at it. Now let us return and get individuals vaccinated. And that's what we're going to do, get as a lot of people vaccinated as we possibly could," Fauci added.

On Friday, an independent government advisory panel voted in favor of resuming Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccinations but using a new general warning about the potential of extremely rare but serious blood clots.

According to the CDC, there are now 15 confirmed cases of infrequent blood clots reported out of almost 8 million administered Johnson & Johnson shots. All of the cases reported were in women under 60, and three died.

Stephanopoulos requested Fauci to address a small population of individuals resistant to mass vaccinations, including Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, who this week indicated on a radio series it's not crucial for everyone to receive a vaccine.

"What is your response to that?" Stephanopoulos requested Fauci.

"If you look at the numbers there's been about 570,000, Americans have expired (of COVID-19)," Fauci responded. "We have an extremely efficacious and effective vaccine that's really very, very secure. That's why you need everyone to get vaccinated, so that I don't understand the debate."

Stephanopoulos also pressed Fauci about whether the United States should do more to help India, a country suffering with brand new record COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

"Their health care system may fall if the situation does not improve, what more can the United States be doing right now to help tackle this crisis?" Stephanopoulos asked.

"We really do need to do more, I mean I don't believe that you can walk away from that," Fauci said. "Even as we speak, George, there is discussions about really ramping up what we can do on the ground."

"We have about 30 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine that aren't approved for use . Should we just be sending that over?" Stephanopoulos asked.

Stressing he did not need to speak directly on coverage, Fauci responded,"I feel that is definitely going to be something that is up for active consideration."