Infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci and other top Trump
administration health officials are set to receive the coronavirus
vaccine on Tuesday.
Fauci, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, National
Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins and frontline health
workers are scheduled to receive doses of Moderna’s vaccine at an
event at NIH on Tuesday morning, Azar said Monday afternoon on
Twitter.
The announcement came after POLITICO first revealed the
plans.
NIH as of Friday had
yet to receive a single shipment of the vaccine, despite
playing an instrumental role in developing the Moderna vaccine,
which the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use
on Friday night. Other government agencies like the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention received a federal allocation of
Pfizer’s vaccine last week, while NIH has spent days negotiating
with Maryland officials to receive a share of its allocation.
As a result, Fauci and other NIH scientists spent last week
waiting for updates on when they’d get the vaccine, even as
politicians like Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Lindsey Graham got their shots in public.
NIH and HHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
But Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said in a press release Monday that
the state would provide vaccine to “front-line clinical healthcare
workers” at NIH. In addition to operating more than two dozen
research institutes, the agency has a hospital devoted to clinical
research.
“With our earliest vaccinations focused on high-risk
populations, we are providing a limited number of doses to NIH in
order to vaccinate these Maryland-based front line healthcare
workers,” Hogan said. “I want to thank Dr. Collins, Dr. Fauci, and
their teams for all they have done throughout this crisis to save
lives.”
NIH researchers worked with drugmaker Moderna to develop and
test its Covid-19 vaccine, which became the first out of dozens of
hopefuls to begin human trials this spring. Fauci and others at NIH
also were involved in the Operation Warp Speed initiative to speed
vaccine development this year.
A growing number of political officials have received Covid-19
vaccines under continuity-of-government protocols, including House
Speaker Nancy
Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who
got their shots on Friday.
But Fauci — the government’s top infectious disease
researcher, who turns 80 years old on Thursday — has been waiting
for his turn. Fauci said in a TV appearance on Friday morning that
he was “ready to go” and eager to get the vaccine as soon as
possible.
