Dr. Fauci receives COVID-19 vaccine, says it’s an ‘important moment’

(This event is now over. Click here to read the latest on the COVID-19 vaccine.)

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, and other health officials will receive their COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday amid a national rollout to help stunt the pandemic.

Fauci, who is the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, will be vaccinated in a live event at 9 a.m. The event will be livestreamed in this article but delays are possible. If there is not a livestream available, check back at a later time.

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and frontline workers will join Fauci in receiving the Moderna vaccine.

The event is part of the NIH ceremonial COVID-19 vaccine kickoff, according to CNN. The Moderna vaccine was co-developed with scientists at the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Fauci told Good Morning America that Tuesday’s vaccine ceremony will be “an important moment.”

“I’m doing it because I want to symbolize the 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,” he said.

The Moderna COVID-19 vaccine is the second to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The nation’s first COVID-19 vaccine, from Pfizer Inc. and its German partner BioNTech, was approved on Dec. 11.

President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received his first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on live television as part of a growing effort to convince the American public the inoculations are safe.

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