Fauci receives vaccine, says he's 'extremely confident' it's effective

December 22, 2020December 22, 2020 WKXA

Patrick Semansky-Pool/Getty ImagesBy STEPHANIE EBBS, ABC News

(BETHESDA, Md.) — The country’s most prominent infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, received his first dose of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday in a ceremonial event at the National Institutes of Health.

The event was shown live on national television as part of an effort to reassure Americans that the vaccine was safe and effective.

Fauci received his shot along with NIH Director Francis Collins and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. They were joined by frontline health care workers at NIH who have been treating COVID-19 patients.

Fauci said getting vaccinated is a double positive because he both wants to show the importance of getting the vaccine and celebrate the accomplishment of the lab in his division of NIH that worked on developing the Moderna vaccine.

“It’s an important moment. We have worked as you probably know very hard,” he said in an interview on ABC’s Good Morning America.

“I’ll be getting the Moderna vaccine. We just got a shipment in yesterday. I feel very good about it, because in a large part, that vaccine was developed by my group at the NIH. So, you know, it’s sort of a double positive. One, in general, 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.”