WASHINGTON, Dec 20 (NNN-AGENCIES) — US President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Jill Biden, will get their first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, a transition official informed.
“On Monday, President-elect Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden will receive the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine in Delaware, and they’ll also thank health care workers at the facility,” Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
“He will be doing it in public, which is important to us, as he’s stated many times, to send a clear message to the public that it’s safe,” she added.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will get their first doses the following week.
The announcement came hours after Vice President Mike Pence and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi became the highest-ranking government officials to receive their first doses of a Covid-19 vaccine that could eventually put an end to the raging pandemic.
Meanwhile, recent polls have shown that confidence in the Covid-19 vaccine is increasing but that many Americans still harbor doubts.
US President Donald Trump has said he will take the vaccine, but hasn’t said when. White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday declined to set a timeline, or to commit to him getting it while still in office.
The Republican has sent mixed messages about the seriousness of Covid-19 throughout the crisis, even as the US death toll topped 300,000 this month.
However, he has been keen to take credit for the historic speed of vaccine development.
Early Friday, he tweeted that a second drug, made by Moderna, had been “overwhelmingly approved” and that distribution would “start immediately.”
On Thursday, the transition announced that Representative Cedric Richmond, who has been named one of Biden’s White House aides, has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the first known infection among the president-elect’s senior advisers.
Biden was tested after Richmond’s infection was known, and the president-elect tested negative for Covid-19 on Thursday. The transition team said Biden did not have “close contact” as defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control when they appeared together at a campaign event Tuesday in Georgia, Biden spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield said in a statement. — NNN-AGENCIES
