Fauci recommends Biden and Harris get COVID-19 vaccine right away

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Dr. Anthony Fauci urged President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible.

Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force and an infectious disease expert, said Tuesday that the future leaders should receive the vaccine quickly “for security reasons.”

“I believe so,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Good Morning America when asked if they should get vaccinated “right away,” adding, “I mean, this is a person who very soon will be the president of the United States. The president — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will very soon be the vice president of the United States. For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can. You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January. So that would be my strong recommendation.”

He added that both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should be vaccinated as well, even though the president had the virus in the fall.

“I would recommend that he do that as well as Vice President Pence,” Fauci continued. “You still want to protect people who are, you know, very important to our country right now, even though the president himself was infected and he has, likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not sure how long that protection lasts. So to be doubly sure, I would recommend that he get vaccinated as well as the vice president.”

The first vaccinations in the country were rolled out Monday for healthcare workers. Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care unit nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York, was one of the first recipients who publicly took the vaccine.

Under the Biden administration, Fauci will serve as chief medical adviser on COVID-19 to the president and will continue in his agency role.

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