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US President-elect Joe Biden received the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine live on television today in a campaign to increase Americans’ confidence in coups.
The incoming 78-year-old president received the vaccine at Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware.
His wife Jill received the injection earlier, the presidential transition team said.
Biden told Americans that “there is nothing to worry about” when getting vaccinated and that in the meantime they should continue to wear masks and “listen to the experts.”
They were the last high-profile political figures to publicly join the first wave of vaccines aimed at stopping a pandemic that has killed nearly 318,000 Americans.
Vice President Mike Pence and his wife were vaccinated last week, but President Donald Trump has yet to participate in the campaign.
For Joe Biden, who will be the oldest president to take office on January 20, this was the first injection of the Pfizer vaccine in two stages. He said he was “waiting” for the follow-up.
He praised “the scientists and the people who put this together: front-line workers, people who really did the clinical work.”
He called the medical workers “amazing and incredible.”
Biden also had some rare praise for the Trump administration, which he said “deserves some credit” for overseeing vaccine development and production at record speed.
But Biden, who spoke through a double mask, cautioned that there is still a long way to go before vaccines can actually stop the spread of the virus.
“It’s worth saying that, you know, this is just the beginning,” he said. “It’s going to take time.”
“In the meantime,” he said, “I hope people will listen to all the experts … talk about the need to wear masks” during the holidays.
“If you don’t have to travel, don’t travel. It’s really important.”
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The European Commission previously approved the use of the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine, the final step to allow Europe to start inoculations in one week.
The United States and Great Britain began their vaccination programs earlier this month.
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