Joe Biden, wife to receive Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Monday
Dec 19, 2020
Washington [US], December 19 : US President-elect Joe Biden and the incoming First Lady Jill Biden will receive the first dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine on Monday in Delaware, said a spokesperson of Biden's transition team on Friday.
CNN reported that the transition team did not have details on where exactly the vaccination would take place. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, would receive their vaccines in the following week, spokesperson Jen Psaki said.
Biden and Harris were "staggering the vaccine" on the recommendation of medical experts, Psaki added. According to CNN, " The reason could be that if Biden and Harris experience the expected side effects, such as a headache or fever, the two would not experience them on the same day."
Biden previously told Jake Tapper of CNN that he would be "happy to" take the COVID-19 vaccine once US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said it was safe and he would get the injection in a public setting to prove it.
Fauci in an interview said that he would give his "strong recommendation" to President-elect and Vice President-elect to get vaccinated "as soon as they possibly can".
President Donald Trump has not received the vaccine yet and will not be administered one until it is recommended by the White House medical team, a White House official told CNN.
"The President is still receiving the benefits of the monoclonal antibody cocktail he was given after he tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this year, the official said, but he is likely to get his shot once he moves into a timing window to receive a vaccination," the American media outlet reported further.
This comes after US Vice President Mike Pence on Friday (local time) received the vaccine against coronavirus during an on-camera event.
As part of federal efforts to instill confidence among the public with regard to the safety and efficacy of the vaccine, along with the Vice-President, second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams were administered the vaccine, which has received emergency use authorisation and is being rolled out nationwide.
According to The Hill, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also received their first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine on Friday.
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Friday (local time) has authorised the Moderna coronavirus vaccine for emergency use for people aged 18 years and above, while last week, it approved Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for emergency use across the country.
