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Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, will be vaccinated at 10 a.m. on Tuesday at what the National Institutes of Health is billing as a kickoff event showcasing Moderna’s vaccine, which received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Friday.

Dr. Fauci’s vaccination has been long awaited by public figures and health experts. Former President Barack Obama recently said that if Dr. Fauci, who will also be serving as the chief medical adviser to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., endorses a coronavirus vaccine, that will be a signal to him that it is safe.

Joining Dr. Fauci will be Dr. Francis S. Collins, the N.I.H. director, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, and frontline workers at the N.I.H. Clinical Center. The Moderna vaccine, which has received billions of dollars of support from the federal government, has become a triumphant symbol of the administration’s efforts to develop and distribute a vaccine. It was designed by scientists at N.I.H. and the company within two days of China’s releasing the genetic sequence of the coronavirus.

On Monday, Mr. Biden received the coronavirus vaccine on live television at the Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., to send a message to Americans across the country that the vaccine was safe to take.

“Left’s good,” he told the nurse practitioner who administered the vaccine, rolling up the sleeve of his black long-sleeve turtleneck and exposing his left arm. “You just go ahead anytime you’re ready.”

He credited the Trump administration for its work on Operation Warp Speed, which helped to deliver a quick vaccine.

“The administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground,” he said. “I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it’s available to take the vaccine.”

Mr. Biden, however, warned Americans that vigilance in the coming months was still necessary.

“It’s going to take time,” he said, encouraging people to continue to wear masks and socially distance. “If you don’t have to travel, don’t travel,” he said. “It’s really important.”

He thanked health care workers, calling them heroes, and ended with an awkward elbow bump with Tabe Mase, the nurse practitioner who administered to him the first course of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine. His wife, Dr. Jill Biden, received the vaccine privately earlier in the day on Monday, according to a spokesman, and joined him at the hospital.

Since March, Mr. Biden’s team has been taking public health guidelines about social distancing and masks seriously, as President Trump and his aides have willfully disregarded them. But even Mr. Biden’s more careful circle has been infiltrated by the virus. Representative Cedric L. Richmond, Democrat of Louisiana and one of Mr. Biden’s closest advisers, tested positive for the coronavirus last week, the transition team announced.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris is expected to receive her vaccine after Christmas, a spokeswoman said, following advice from doctors who recommended Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris stagger their first shots rather than receive them together.