President-elect Joe Biden will follow the guidance of Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert, about when to take a coronavirus vaccine and will have it administered in public, a transition official said Sunday as the Trump administration prepared to begin offering the vaccine to top officials.
For months Biden has said he would heed Fauci’s advice about the safety of the vaccine and will continue to do so after he takes office in little more than a month. He’s asked Fauci to continue on in his role as head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and to also be his chief medical adviser.
Biden said earlier this month that he would “be happy” to take the vaccine in public, just as former presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have said they would.
“When Dr. Fauci says we have a vaccine that is safe, that’s the moment in which I will stand before the public,” Biden said in an interview with CNN.