White House will not say when Trump will get vaccine

WASHINGTON

The White House declined to provide a timetable Tuesday for when US President Donald Trump will receive a coronavirus vaccine.

Asked by reporters about the matter, spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Trump "will take it when health experts and his White House doctor ask him to do so and says it's the appropriate time."

"He is very open to taking this, but also wants to prioritize frontline workers," she said.

Trump has already contracted COVID-19, and was discharged from a military hospital in Maryland after receiving highly specialized treatment in October.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the US's leading infectious disease expert, said earlier Tuesday that he would recommend Trump receive the coronavirus vaccine after it received emergency use authorization on Friday, in part, because it is unclear how long the virus' antibodies last in a human body.

"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," Fauci said on ABC's Good Morning America.

Trump's White House has repeatedly been the site of coronavirus outbreaks after hosting events where guests did not don face coverings or socially distance.