Vice President Kamala Harris on Tuesday received her second shot of the COVID-19 vaccine from Moderna, meaning she is fully immunized against the disease.
The vice president received the shot in the left arm from Judy Lai Yee Chan, a nurse practitioner at the National Institutes of Health who said Ms. Harris might feel a stronger reaction than after her first shot.
“It’s because your body is building immunity,” the nurse said.
“That’s what we want,” Ms. Harris said.
Ms. Harris recounted how she grew up around lab work because her mother was a scientist who frequently traveled to Bethesda, Maryland, for peer-review work at NIH.
She said agency scientists are performing an “essential function of government” by protecting public health.
“I want to urge everyone to take the vaccine when it is your turn,” Ms. Harris said.
Ms. Harris’s husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, accompanied her to NIH and received his second dose.
The Moderna vaccine is delivered in a pair of doses, 28 days apart.
“You’re right at day 28 — we do believe that is important,” NIH Director Francis Collins said, as some countries debate delaying the second dose of vaccines to maximize early protection with available doses.
Moderna’s vaccine is one of two approved for emergency use in the U.S.
President Biden received two doses of the other version, from Pfizer and Germany company BioNTech, before he was inaugurated.
Both of the vaccines use a messenger-RNA platform and were roughly 95% effective in human trials.
Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson on Tuesday said it plans to report results from the human trial of its adenovirus-based vaccine by next week.
The J&J version requires only one dose, so its approval would speed the immunization campaign.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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