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(CNN) – Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received the first dose of the Modern COVID-19 vaccine live on television Tuesday in Washington, DC, urging Americans to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I want to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. It’s relatively painless. It happens very quickly. It’s safe,” Harris said after the vaccine was administered to his left arm.
“It’s literally about saving lives,” Harris said. “I trust the scientists. And it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine. So I urge everyone, when it is their turn, to get vaccinated.”
Harris said her husband, Doug Emhoff, would also receive the first dose of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday.
The vaccine was administered by Patricia Cummings, clinical nurse manager at United Medical Center, according to the Biden-Harris transition team.
The vice president-elect’s vaccination comes just over a week after President-elect Joe Biden received his live broadcast on national television. After receiving the vaccine, Biden reassured Americans about the safety of the vaccine and urged them to get vaccinated as soon as the vaccines became available.
Biden and Harris staggered their vaccinations on the recommendation of medical experts, according to transition spokeswoman Jen Psaki. The reason for such a recommendation could be that if Biden and Harris reported any side effects, such as headache or fever, they would not experience them on the same day.
The US Food and Drug Administration has granted an emergency use authorization for two coronavirus vaccines: one from Pfizer / BioNTech and one from Moderna. Both Moderna’s and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccines have shown similar efficacy levels of about 95%, with both vaccines requiring two doses administered several weeks apart.
The nation’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told ABC earlier this month that he strongly recommended that Biden and Harris be vaccinated as soon as possible. And on Sunday he reiterated his recommendation that President Donald Trump receive the vaccine.
Vice President Mike Pence was given the vaccine at an event in front of the camera the week before Biden. The first doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine were given to healthcare workers the same week that Pence received his injection.
Trump has yet to receive the vaccine and will not be given one until recommended by the White House medical team, a White House official previously told CNN. The official said at the time that Trump was still receiving the benefits of the monoclonal antibody cocktail he was given after he tested positive for COVID-19 this fall, but that the president was likely to receive his injection once recommended by his medical equipment.
In its clinical guidance for coronavirus vaccines licensed for emergency use in the United States, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the vaccines should be offered to people previously infected with the coronavirus, as Trump did in early October. He noted that vaccination could be delayed a bit, as reinfection is rare within 90 days of initial infection.
However, there are no data on the safety or efficacy of vaccines in people who were treated for COVID-19 with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma; Trump’s treatment for COVID-19 included Regeneron’s cocktail of monoclonal antibodies. The CDC guidance said that “vaccination should be postponed for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information is available, to avoid interference of antibody treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses.”
This story was first published on CNN.com, “Kamala Harris receives first dose of Modern COVID-19 vaccine on camera”
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