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WASHINGTON DC: US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife received the COVID-19 vaccine live on television on Friday (December 18) in a public display designed to reassure Americans that the vaccine is safe.
“Building confidence in the vaccine is what brings us here this morning,” Pence said after being injected at the White House, joking: “I didn’t feel a thing.”
“The American people can be sure: we have one, and perhaps within hours, two safe vaccines,” he added, referring to the expected Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for Moderna’s vaccine.
READ: Second U.S. Vaccine Ready to Ship After Daily Record 3,580 COVID-19 Deaths
Pence is the highest-profile recipient of a COVID-19 vaccine to date.
Surgeon General Jerome Adams was also shot during the televised event. All three received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The nation’s first week of a mass immunization program against a virus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans ends.
Noting the importance given to the event, leading infectious diseases Anthony Fauci and the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, were also in the room.
The notable absence was President Donald Trump himself. He has sent mixed messages about the severity of COVID-19 throughout the crisis.
However, he wanted to take credit for the historic speed of vaccine development. Early Friday morning, he tweeted that a second drug made by Moderna had been “overwhelmingly approved” and that “distribution would begin immediately.”
This caused some confusion.While an advisory panel recommended emergency use approval for Moderna’s vaccine on Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration has yet to deliver the final verdict allowing distribution, which is expected on Friday.
READ: US FDA Expert Panel Endorses Modern COVID-19 Vaccine
Trump himself has made it clear that he does not plan to get vaccinated imminently, citing the belief that his recovery from a brief but severe attack of COVID-19 has given him immunity.
“You will receive the vaccine as soon as your medical team determines that it is best. But your priority is the front-line workers, the ones in long-term care facilities,” said White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany. .
President-elect Joe Biden, 78, announced plans to get vaccinated in public soon, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Thursday they will get vaccinated in the following days.
COVID-19 DEATHS TOP 3,000 AGAIN
Deaths in the United States from COVID-19 surpassed 3,000 for the third day in a row, with a record number of 239,903 new infections on Thursday.
Health experts have warned of a deepening crisis this winter as intensive care units (ICUs) fill up and hospital beds overflow down corridors. Hospitalizations in the United States have set a new record in each of the past 20 days, approaching 114,000 on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally.
“We hope to have more corpses than spaces for them,” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said Thursday at a briefing, saying the nation’s second-largest city had completely exhausted its ICU capacity.
READ: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Sinovac: A Look at Three Key COVID-19 Vaccines
To help curb the pandemic, the FDA promised to work quickly to grant emergency approval of Moderna Inc’s COVID-19 candidate vaccine, one week after authorizing the first vaccine from Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE.
Both vaccines require two doses, given three to four weeks apart, for each person inoculated.
Health authorities have tried to reassure Americans that large-scale clinical trials and scientific review found the vaccines to be safe and effective.
Large numbers of Americans subscribe to the anti-vaccination movement and hostility to COVID-19 vaccines in particular has been sparked by influential right-wing media personalities.
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