A decision to lift the suspension of administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine might occur by Friday, White House chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday on ABC's "This Week."

"But no indication they will stop using it?" "This Week" Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz asked Fauci.

"I really don't think so, Martha," Fauci responded, stressing that he did not want to get too far ahead of federal regulators. "I believe we'll get back with it and there might be some restrictions. Not sure what that will be, whether they'll be age or sex or whether they'll just come back with a warning of some sort."

The pause was initiated to investigate the cause of rare blood clots in women who received the J&J vaccine.

"Dr. Fauci, as you said, this is a very rare disorder. There have been six known cases of illness and one fatality out of 7 million shots. Almost all of those affected were women in the 18 to 49 age group. So why not just pause that age group and women?" Raddatz pressed.

"They want to make sure that they're not missing something," Fauci responded. "So if you're going to pause, you might as well just pause, period, and then get back into it as soon as you possibly can."

The Biden administration and federal regulators have repeatedly said that the suspension of administering the J&J vaccine shows that the system is working to ensure vaccines are safe and will have a little to no impact on the nation's vaccine rollout.

However, those assurances are not silencing the backlash from some medical experts and state and local officials who are worried the suspension will lead to an increase in vaccine hesitancy as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are on the rise again.