Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of America’s leading public health experts, received his first round of the coronavirus vaccine Tuesday morning on television.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who emerged as a prominent member of the Trump administration’s coronavirus task force during the pandemic, received the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine in Bethesda, Maryland, where the National Institutes of Health has its main campus.
Fauci said that he wanted his vaccination to serve “as a symbol to the rest of the country that I feel extreme confidence in the safety and the efficacy of this vaccine, and I want to encourage everyone who has the opportunity to get vaccinated so that we can have a veil of protection over this country that would end this pandemic.”
“What we’re seeing now is the culmination of years of research which have led to a phenomenon that has truly been unprecedented,” he added.
NIH Director Francis Collins, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and a handful of front-line workers also received the vaccine on Tuesday.
“We’ve all said it is nothing short of miraculous to have a safe and effective vaccine within one year of a novel virus becoming known to the world,” Azar said.
Distribution of the Moderna vaccine began earlier this month after it received emergency approval from the Food and Drug Administration. To date, mostly front-line workers and important government officials have been given the first of two doses of the vaccine. President-elect Joe Biden, incoming first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Mike Pence, and second lady Karen Pence were vaccinated recently, as was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, Biden’s choice for surgeon general, said that he expects the vaccine to be available for the general public closer to the third quarter of 2021 rather than in the spring, as other federal officials have suggested.
The coronavirus, which came to the United States approximately 10 months ago, has now infected over 17 million people in the country, and COVID-19 has been attributed to more than 300,000 deaths.
