Fauci publicly takes vaccine: ‘I feel extreme confidence in the safety and the efficacy’
The infectious disease specialist is among the first health officials to take the shot
On Tuesday morning, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other top government health officials received their first dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
According to NBC News, Dr. Fauci received the shot around 10 a.m. at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Like the other health officials before him, he chose to get it done publicly as “a symbol to the rest of the country.”
Read More: Biden receives vaccine; Harris to get hers after Christmas
As theGrio reported last week, Fauci acknowledges the schism between Black people and medical institutions. During his conversation with Dr. Wayne Frederick, he attempted to offer assurance to anyone skeptical of the vaccine.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins, NIH Office of Research Services director Colleen A. McGowan, and six health care workers from the medical clinic were also vaccinated. They were amongst those to receive the first 100 doses of the vaccine.
“I made it a personal priority to ensure that we were not cutting any corners in this development process, that the standards and data being used were fully transparent and that the final decisions made on these vaccines, were made by the same career FDA scientists who would make the decisions on any other vaccine,” Azar said.
However, Azar wanted the public to know that this shot is just like “any other vaccine we receive” and that we must continue to wear masks and social distance to lessen COVID-19 for good.
Read More: FDA panel endorses Moderna coronavirus vaccine
Before receiving the vaccine on Tuesday morning, Fauci told ABC’s Good Morning America that this was an important moment for many reasons but especially for him personally.
“I’m doing it because I want to symbolize to people the importance that everyone gets vaccinated who can get vaccinated, but also it’s a good feeling of accomplishment because this originated in laboratories in my institute,” Fauci said.
The first vaccine to be distributed was the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. Last week, theGrio reported that Sandra Lindsay, a Black critical care nurse in Queens was among the first to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine after volunteering to take the shot.
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