WATCH: Pence leads COVID-19 vaccine roundtable discussion

WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence says he looks forward in the days ahead to receiving a vaccine for COVID-19 and will do so without hesitation.

Watch the roundtable in the video player above.

Pence is speaking Tuesday at a Catalent Biologics plant in his home state of Indiana. The plant is producing a vaccine developed by Moderna and the National Institutes of Health.

He is trying to inject confidence in the vaccine a day after the rollout of Pfizer-BioNTech’s coronavirus shots and as the Food and Drug Administration says in a preliminary report that the Moderna vaccine is also safe and effective.

Pence declared, “we have come to the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.”

Pence is also stressing the need for Americans to stay focused on limiting the spread of the virus before a vaccine is in widespread use. He says cases and hospitalizations are continuing to rise in many parts of the country. The death toll from the coronavirus topped 300,000 Monday.

“It’s been a marathon this year. It’s been a marathon of heartbreak for many American families,” he said.