President-elect Joe Biden took a Covid vaccine on live television Monday afternoon to urge Americans to get inoculated.
“There’s nothing to worry about. I am looking forward to the second shot,” Biden said from a hospital in Delaware.
Jill Biden, the incoming first lady, also had her dose of the vaccine earlier in the day. Meanwhile, Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala Harris of California and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will be inoculated next week.
Biden was given Covid vaccine by Tabe Masa, the head of employee health services at ChristianaCare Hospital.
The coronavirus pandemic has already killed more than 300,000 in the U.S., causing economic damages and transforming the way candidates campaign for the presidency.
Biden was deemed careful with spreading the virus during his campaign, avoiding large gatherings and canceling door-to-door campaign activities.
After taking the coronavirus vaccine, Biden said the Trump administration “deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed.”
Biden also called on Americans to avoid nonessential travel plans and to wear masks.
“We owe these folks an awful lot, the scientists and the people who put this together, the front line workers, the ones who actually did the clinical work. It’s just amazing,” Biden said.
Biden took the initial dose of the vaccine manufactured by Pfizer, the first to be approved by U.S. regulators. Moderna's vaccine started being shipped around the country over the weekend. Both require two doses to be given several weeks apart.
Meanwhile, health authorities said they hope to vaccinate as many as 20 million people in the remaining weeks of 2020, but have warned that it could be months before most people can take shots.
Biden noted that long time frame.
“Now Moderna is going to be on the road as well, but it’s going to take time,” Biden said. “It’s going to take time, and in the meantime — I don’t want to sound a sour note here — but I hope people listen to all the experts.”
Some of the officials who have been publicly vaccinated were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence.
President Donald Trump, who contracted the virus in October, has yet to receive a vaccine.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams pointed out that Trump had not taken the vaccine because he had been treated with monoclonal antibodies.
“That is actually one scenario where we tell people, ‘Maybe you should hold off on getting the vaccine, talk to your health provider to find out the right time,’” Adams said on CBS News.
Vaccine rollout
President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid advisory board member Dr. Atul Gawande says vaccine rollout will be “a Herculean operation.”
“The biggest challenge is going to be both production and then getting it into people’s arms,” Gawande said about the vaccine rollout. “The whole chain of getting it out on those trucks, but then, the whole chain of getting them into hospitals.”
Biden previously said that for his first 100 days as U.S. president, Biden plans to get at least 100 million Americans vaccinated, sign a mandate asking people to wear face masks, and get the children back to school safely.
