WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci and different prime authorities well being officers received their first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine on Tuesday.
Fauci, director of the Nationwide Institute of Allergy and Infectious Illnesses, acquired the shot round 10 a.m. ET on the Nationwide Institutes of Well being Medical Heart in Bethesda, Maryland.
Well being and Human Providers Secretary Alex Azar, NIH Director Francis Collins, NIH Workplace of Analysis Providers Director Colleen A. McGowan and 6 well being care employees from the medical clinic had been additionally vaccinated.
Publicly getting the vaccine “is as an emblem to the remainder of the nation,” Fauci mentioned. “I really feel excessive confidence within the security and the efficacy of this vaccine and I need to encourage everybody who has the chance to get vaccinated in order that we may have a veil of safety over this nation that might finish this pandemic.”
Fauci and the opposite officers acquired the Moderna vaccine from the company’s first cargo of 100 doses.
It was co-developed by the infectious illness institute and by Moderna, the biotechnology firm primarily based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Meals and Drug Administration issued an emergency use authorization for the Moderna vaccine late final week and distribution of the first doses began on Monday.
Azar mentioned in remarks earlier than he acquired his shot that “this vaccine is kind of similar to some other vaccine we obtain” and that they nonetheless should proceed carrying masks and training social distancing.
“I made it a private precedence to make sure that we weren’t chopping any corners on this growth course of, that the requirements and knowledge getting used had been absolutely clear and that the ultimate choices made on these vaccines, had been made by the identical profession FDA scientists who would make the choices on some other vaccine,” Azar mentioned.
President Donald Trump tweeted on Tuesday in regards to the success of the vaccine roll out.
The primary vaccine to be approved and distributed was the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine beginning final week.
Fauci, 79, mentioned in an interview on ABC’s “Good Morning America” Tuesday morning earlier than being vaccinated that will probably be “an essential second” when he and others obtain the shot.
“I am doing it as a result of I need to symbolize to folks the significance that everybody will get vaccinated who can get vaccinated, but in addition it is a good feeling of accomplishment, as a result of this originated in laboratories in my institute,” Fauci mentioned.
