President-elect Joseph R. Biden received a dose of a coronavirus vaccine with cameras rolling Monday and gave the Trump administration credit for the medical breakthrough that is helping to turn the tide against the pandemic.
Mr. Biden praised President Trump’s team for facilitating quick approval and distribution of vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna.
“I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared, when it’s available, to take the vaccine,” Mr. Biden said at ChristianaCare’s Christiana Hospital in Newark, Delaware, where he received the first of the two-dose regimen of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
Incoming first lady Jill Biden, joined her husband as he rolled up his sleeve. She had been vaccinated earlier without the news media present.
Vice President-elect Sen. Kamala D. Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are expected to get their first vaccine doses next week.
Mr. Biden’s team said that medical experts recommended Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris stagger the first doses for security reasons.
Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, an incoming White House adviser and a member of Mr. Biden’s inner circle, tested positive last week after he and Mr. Biden were at the same campaign event in Georgia.
The two men were never in close contact and Mr. Richmond’s diagnosis didn’t have anything to do with the timing of Mr. Biden’s vaccination, according to the Biden team.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious diseases expert, said this month that Mr. Biden and Ms. Harris should get their vaccines “as soon as we possibly can” for continuity of government purposes.
Dr. Fauci also said President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence should get vaccinated. Mr. Pence did so last week.
With millions of Pfizer and Moderna vaccine doses being distributed in the coming weeks, the Trump administration has started a public campaign to urge people to get vaccinated when it’s their turn on the priority list.
Dr. Fauci is scheduled to receive the initial dose of the Moderna vaccine on Tuesday, along with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar II and Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health.
“We know we have a sizable number of people in this country who are vaccine-hesitant,” Michael Osterholm, a member of Mr. Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board, said Monday on CBS. “We’ve not done a good job of explaining what these vaccines are, what they might be able to do, and why people need to get them.”
Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen Pence, received vaccine shots with the cameras rolling on Friday, with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams.
The White House says Mr. Trump is willing to get a vaccine but that he wants to save the initial doses for frontline workers.
Dr. Adams also said Monday that Mr. Trump is a unique case because he received special antibody treatment after contracting the virus in October.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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