President-elect Joe Biden has received a COVID-19 vaccine dose, and Dr. Anthony Fauci is among the health officials next in line.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Tuesday will receive a dose of Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, as will Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, and frontline workers, Politico reported on Monday.
Azar confirmed the plans in a tweet, saying "we believe it's important to publicly receive the vaccine as part of our efforts to demonstrate that these vaccines are safe and effective." Numerous officials have previously received a vaccine dose in public including Vice President Mike Pence and Biden. Biden received the Pfizer vaccine on Monday, afterward telling Americans they have "nothing to worry about" and should get the vaccine when they can.
Politico reports that Fauci "and other NIH scientists spent last week waiting for updates on when they'd get the vaccine" while Pence and members of Congress got theirs, and the "NIH as of Friday had yet to receive a single shipment of the vaccine." The Moderna vaccine Fauci and the other officials are set to receive was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday, becoming the second COVID-19 vaccine to be approved in the United States.