随着美国授权的第一种新冠肺炎疫苗本周在全国范围内推广，特朗普政府的高级官员们权衡了他们是否值得实质上跳过这条线并公开接种，以便为可能持怀疑态度的美国人树立榜样，就像代理国防部长克里斯托弗·米勒周一为军方成员所做的那样。
他们和即将上任的拜登政府也一直在考虑高级官员是否应该尽早获得疫苗来保护健康这个国家的领导人和关键成员国家安全机器，以确保政府的延续。
总统唐纳德·特朗普在今年秋天感染之后，他很可能已经有了一定程度的免疫力，但对于他是否愿意成为第一批接受有限剂量疫苗注射的人，他一直含糊其辞。周日晚上，他表示他可能会等。
特朗普说:“我没有计划接种疫苗，但我期待在适当的时候接种。”发微博。
然而，当选总统乔·拜登表示愿意接种疫苗。
“我确信他会接种疫苗，”联邦政府最高传染病官员安东尼·福奇博士在2006年说MSNBC访谈星期一。“我认为这是一个他什么时候来做这件事的问题，我们正在就此进行讨论。”
上个月，当被问及一旦疫苗获得批准，他是否会接种疫苗时，拜登说，如果国家过敏和传染病研究所主任福奇批准的话，他“会毫不犹豫地接种疫苗”，福奇后来说他已经批准了。
拜登在11月16日说，“最需要的人得到它是很重要的”。“我会毫不犹豫地接种疫苗。但我也想以身作则。”
当周一被问及拜登接种新冠肺炎疫苗的计划时，一名过渡官员告诉美国广播公司新闻，当选总统正在与福奇联系，并计划在他建议时公开接种疫苗。
福奇正在为本届政府提供建议，并计划担任拜登的首席医疗顾问，他说，他认为自己将在“一周内”公开接种疫苗。
“一旦轮到我，可能很快就会轮到我，我将可以公开接种疫苗，这样人们就可以看到我强烈地认为这是我们应该做的事情，”福奇说。
疾病控制和预防中心被推荐的本月，第一批疫苗将发放给治疗病人的卫生保健人员、疗养院和其他长期护理机构的工作人员和居民，尽管最终还是要由州和地区领导人决定如何在他们的管辖范围内分配疫苗。
食品和药物管理局周五授权紧急使用由制药公司辉瑞和生物技术公司生产的疫苗。
一些剂量也被预留给了军方和联邦政府。
《纽约时报》和其他媒体周日报道称，白宫高级官员将首先接受疫苗接种，之后特朗普发微博那些在那里工作的人“应该在项目后期接受疫苗，除非特别需要”
“我已经要求进行这种调整，”他补充说，没有谁仍然有资格，以及如何推迟其他人的接种。
周日早些时候，白宫国家安全委员会(National Security Council)发言人约翰·尤约特(John Ullyot)证实，联邦高级官员将接受疫苗，他既同意需要确保“政府的连续性”，又让公众对疫苗的安全性放心。
尤约特在一份声明中说:“政府所有三个部门的高级官员都将根据行政政策中确立的政府协议的连续性接受疫苗接种。”“美国人民应该有信心，根据公共卫生专业人士和国家安全领导层的建议，他们正在接受与美国政府高级官员相同的安全有效的疫苗。”
在过去几个月的民调中，美国人对疫苗保持了健康的怀疑态度，尤其是在特朗普一再将已经创纪录的疫苗开发过程政治化的情况下。
但是最近的调查显示更多的美国人愿意得到它。在由美国广播公司新闻/益普索进行的一项民意调查周末，84%的美国人说他们会收到它，尽管其中一半人说他们会等一会儿再收到。
尽管如此，仍有15%的美国人继续反对接种疫苗，党派之争起到了关键作用。共和党人说他们永远不会得到它的可能性是民主党人的四倍多，是无党派人士的近两倍。
特朗普和他的政府中的其他高级官员，如副总统迈克·彭斯，在镜头前接种疫苗可能会鼓励那些共和党怀疑者自己被戳。
“我们也认识到像我这样的人接种疫苗有一个象征性的部分，让人们相信他们可以接种疫苗，”美国卫生部长杰罗姆·亚当斯周一在接受美国广播公司新闻首席主播乔治·斯特凡诺普洛斯关于“早安美国”的采访时说。
三位美国前总统巴拉克·奥巴马、乔治·布什和比尔·克林顿表示，他们将为此公开接种疫苗。
大约50名高级文职和军事领导人，包括代理国防部长米勒和参谋长联席会议主席马克·米利将军，正在公开接种疫苗，以鼓励军人接种疫苗。
彭斯的发言人周一表示，副总统的“团队已经开始内部讨论副总统可能如何以及何时接受疫苗。”彭斯上个月表示，他将“为在疫苗上市的那一刻就接种疫苗感到自豪”，并表示他将“在适合我这类人的那一刻”接种疫苗。
国会领导人表示，他们正在与国会医生办公室讨论疫苗分配，尽管他们尚未做出决定。除了提高人们对疫苗的信心，一些在全国各地工作的国会议员由于年龄较大，面临着更大的风险，可能会出现来自新冠肺炎的严重症状。
74岁的特朗普和78岁的拜登也属于这一类，80岁的众议院议长南希·佩洛西也是如此。
81岁的众议院民主党领袖斯坦尼·霍耶(Steny Hoyer)周三对记者表示，关于如何继续进行，仍有“正在进行的讨论”，他指出，“许多”议员因其年龄而被定性为“高风险”，国会议员能够在持续的流行病中运作至关重要。
参议院少数党领袖查克·舒默说，参议院有责任传达疫苗是安全的。
舒默周一表示:“我本人将在合适和推荐的情况下尽快接种疫苗。”。“我不会跳过这一行，但毫无疑问，我们都应该以身作则，承诺接种疫苗，并告诉我们的选民接种。”
但尽早获得接触机会也可能在公众中造成这样的印象，即从白宫到国会山的官员以及美国首都各地的机构都在抓住机会，在这场持续肆虐的大流行中保护自己免受病毒感染。
耶鲁大学重症监护室医生和医学伦理学家马克·西格尔博士告诉美国广播公司新闻，由于可以提出支持或反对特朗普决定接种疫苗的合法论点，“无论他选择什么，总统对他的推理保持透明都将有所帮助”。
西格尔说:“例如，如果他说他支持疫苗的安全性和有效性，但现在推迟服用，以便其他有更紧迫需求的人可以先拿到疫苗，但一旦他有资格，他就会服用疫苗，那就太好了。”“在某种程度上，他混淆了这个问题，人们可能会想，他拒绝接种疫苗是否有更深层次的原因，对于那些跟随他的人来说，这可能会抑制疫苗的摄入。”
如果特朗普在镜头前接种了疫苗，这将不是总统第一次公开展示自己接种了疫苗。
奥巴马卷起他的袖子以便在2009年接种H1N1疫苗。前总统杰拉尔德·福特在1976年因猪流感获得了一个——尽管疫苗倡议是被问题困扰。
Trump, Biden teams grappling with getting COVID-19 vaccine early
As the first COVID-19 vaccine authorized in the United States rolled out across the country this week, senior Trump administration officials weighed whether it would be worth it for them to essentially jump the line and get publicly inoculated in order to set an example for possibly skeptical Americans, as acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller was doing to show members of the military on Monday.
They and the incoming Biden administration also have been considering whether senior officials should receive early access to the vaccine to protect thehealthof the nation's leaders and key members of the country'snational securityapparatus, in order to ensure the continuation of government.
PresidentDonald Trump, who likely already has some degree of immunity after contracting this fall, has been vague about whether he would be willing to be among the first to receive jabs from the limited supply of doses available. On Sunday night, he indicated that he might wait.
"I am not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time," Trumptweeted.
President-elect Joe Biden, though, has expressed a willingness to get inoculated.
"I'm certain that he will get vaccinated," the federal government's top infectious disease official, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said inan interview with MSNBCon Monday. "I think that it is a question of when he will come do that, and we're in discussions with that."
Asked last month whether he would get inoculated once a vaccine was authorized, Biden said he "wouldn't hesitate to get the vaccine" if Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, approved of it -- which Fauci has since said he has.
"It's important that people who are in the greatest need get it," Biden said on Nov. 16. "I wouldn't hesitate to get the vaccine. But I also want to set an example."
When asked Monday about Biden’s plans to get the COVID-19 vaccine, a transition official told ABC News the president-elect is in touch with Fauci, and plans to take the vaccine in public when he recommends he do so.
Fauci, who is advising the current administration and plans to serve as Biden's chief medical adviser on the pandemic, said he thought he would get vaccinated himself publicly "within a week."
"As soon as my turn comes up, which likely will be very soon, I'm going to be available to get vaccinated publicly, so that people can see that I feel strongly that this is something we should do," Fauci said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Preventionrecommendedthis month that the first tranche of doses of the vaccine go to health care workers treating patients and to workers and residents in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, although it was ultimately up to state and regional leaders how to apportion it within their jurisdictions.
The Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the vaccine, produced by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech, on Friday.
Some doses have also been set aside for the military and federal government, too.
After The New York Times and other outlets reported Sunday that senior White House officials were in line to receive the vaccine first, Trumptweetedthat those working there "should receive the vaccine somewhat later in the program -- unless specifically necessary."
"I have asked that this adjustment be made," he added, without who would still qualify and how delayed others' inoculations would be.
Earlier Sunday, a spokesman for the White House's National Security Council, John Ullyot, had confirmed senior federal officials would receive the vaccine, nodding to both the need to ensure the "continuity of government" and reassure the public about the vaccine's safety.
"Senior officials across all three branches of government will receive vaccinations pursuant to continuity of government protocols established in executive policy," Ullyot said in a statement. "The American people should have confidence that they are receiving the same safe and effective vaccine as senior officials of the United States government on the advice of public health professionals and national security leadership."
In polls over the last several months, Americans' have retained a healthy level of skepticism about the vaccine, particularly as Trump has repeatedly politicized the already record-pace vaccine development process.
But recent surveys have shown more Americans willing to get it. Ina poll conducted by ABC News/Ipsosover the weekend, 84% of Americans said they would receive it -- although half of them said they would wait a bit before doing so.
Still, some Americans -- 15% -- continued to oppose receiving the vaccine, and partisanship played a key role. Republicans were more than four times as likely as Democrats and nearly twice as likely as independents to say they would never get it.
Trump and other senior officials in his administration, like Vice President Mike Pence, getting vaccinated before cameras could encourage those GOP skeptics to get jabbed themselves.
"We also recognize that there's a symbolic part of someone like me getting vaccinated, giving people confidence that they can get vaccinated," U.S. Surgeon General Jerome Adams said Monday in an interview with ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on "Good Morning America."
Three former U.S. presidents, Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton, have said they would get publicly vaccinated for that reason.
About 50 senior civilian and military leaders, including acting Defense Secretary Miller and Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were getting vaccinated publicly to encourage military service members to take the vaccine.
A spokesperson for Pence said Monday the vice president's "team has begun to discuss internally about the possible how and when the VP might receive the vaccine." Pence said last month he would "be proud to take a vaccine the moment that it's available" and has also said that he would do it "the very moment that it's appropriate for somebody in my category."
Congressional leaders have indicated they are discussing vaccine distribution with the Capitol physician's office, although they have yet to make a decision. Aside from promoting confidence in the vaccine, some members of Congress -- who crisscross the country for work -- face a greater risk of experiencing severe symptoms from COVID-19 because of their advanced age.
Trump, 74, and Biden, 78, fall into that category, too, as does House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 80.
House Democratic Leader Steny Hoyer, 81, told reporters Wednesday that there were still "ongoing discussions" regarding how to proceed, and he noted that "many" members qualified as "high-risk" due to their age and that it was critical for members of Congress be able to operate amid an ongoing pandemic.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate had a responsibility to communicate that the vaccine is safe.
"I myself will take the vaccine as soon as it is appropriate and recommended," Schumer said Monday. "I will not skip the line but make no mistake we should all lead by example commit to taking the vaccine and tell our constituents to take it."
But getting early access could also create the impression among the public that officials from the White House to Capitol Hill and the agencies across the nation's capital are opportunistically jumping the line in order to save themselves from the virus amid a pandemic that continues to rage.
Since a legitimate argument could be made for or against Trump deciding to get inoculated, "it would help for the president to be transparent about his reasoning," whatever he chooses, Dr. Mark Siegel, a Yale University critical care physician and medical ethicist, told ABC News.
"For example, it would great if he were to say that he stands behind the safety and efficacy of the vaccine but is holding off on taking it now so others with a more urgent need can get it first, but that he will take the vaccine as soon as he is eligible," Siegel said. "To the extent that he confuses the issue, people might wonder if there’s a deeper reason that he’s refusing to take the vaccine and for those who follow his lead, this could suppress vaccine uptake."
If Trump got vaccinated on camera, it would not be the first time for a president to make a public display of being vaccinated himself.
Obamarolled up his sleevein order to receive an H1N1 inoculation in 2009. Former President Gerald Ford got one for swine flu in 1976 -- although that vaccine initiative wasplagued by issues.
