Joe Biden Expected To Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Early Next Week

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine early next week and plans to get his shot in public to demonstrate his confidence in it.

On ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said that he feels strongly that Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris should be vaccinated “as soon as we possibly can.”

Biden told CNN that he would be “happy to” get vaccinated once Fauci says it is safe and would do so in a public setting. Harris said she would do the same.

“I don’t want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to American people that it is safe to take,” Biden told reporters Wednesday in Wilmington, Delaware. “When I do it, I’ll do it publicly, so you can all witness my getting it done.”

The logistics of administering the shot in a public setting is still uncertain at this time.

In addition to the President and Vice President-elect, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama, three former presidents, have all said they would publicly receive the vaccine to further demonstrate its safety and efficacy to the public.

Officials from the Trump Administration have discussed when and how President Donald Trump might receive the coronavirus vaccine, but have not officially scheduled it.

As of last week, the coronavirus vaccine was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for emergency use. The first doses of the vaccine were given out on Monday to health care workers working at the front line of the pandemic and delivered to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Vaccine advisers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities be the first to get vaccinated. However, it is predicted to take months before the vaccine is available to the rest of the population.

Biden said his administration would aim to distribute 100 million vaccine shots, which is enough to cover 50 million people by his first 100 days in office. Pfizer’s vaccine requires two doses injected several weeks apart in order for it to be 95% efficient.

The President-elect has also pledged to sign a face mask mandate on his first day in office, asking Americans to wear a face mask for his first 100 days, for the purpose of prioritizing efforts to get kids back to school in a safe and timely manner.