President-elect
Joe Biden receives his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine at
ChristianaCare Christiana Hospital in Newark, Del., Monday, Dec.
21, 2020, from nurse practitioner Tabe Mase. | AP
The president-elect took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital
not far from his Delaware home, hours after his wife, Jill Biden,
did the same.
NEWARK, Del. — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday received
his first dose of the coronavirus vaccine on live television as
part of a growing effort to convince the American public the
inoculations are safe.
The president-elect took a dose of Pfizer vaccine at a hospital
not far from his Delaware home, hours after his wife, Jill Biden,
did the same. The injections came the same day that a second
vaccine, produced by Moderna, will start arriving in states. It
joins Pfizer’s in the nation’s arsenal against the COVID-19
pandemic, which has now killed more than 317,000 people in the
United States and upended life around the globe.
“I’m ready,” said Biden, who was administered the dose at
a hospital in Newark, Delaware, and declined the option to count to
three before the needle was inserted into his left arm. “I’m
doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when
it’s available to take the vaccine. There’s nothing to worry
about.”
The president-elect praised the health care workers and said
President Donald Trump’s administration “deserves some credit
getting this off the ground.” And Biden urged Americans to wear
masks during the upcoming Christmas holiday and not travel unless
necessary.
Other top government officials last week joined the first wave
of Americans to be inoculated against COVID-19 as part of the
largest largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history.
Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.,
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and other lawmakers
were given doses Friday. They chose to publicize their
injections as part of a campaign to convince Americans that the
vaccines are safe and effective amid skepticism, especially among
Republicans.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband are expected
to receive their first shots next week.
But missing from the action has been President Donald Trump, who
has spent the last week largely out of sight as he continues to
stew about his election loss and floats
increasingly outlandish schemes to try to remain in power.
It’s an approach that has bewildered some top aides who see his
silence as a missed opportunity for the president, who leaves
office Jan. 20, to claim credit for helping oversee the speedy
development of the vaccine and to burnish his legacy.
Trump, who in the past has spread misinformation about vaccine
risks, has not said when he intends to get the shot. He tweeted
earlier this month that he was “not scheduled” to take it, but
said he looked “forward to doing so at the appropriate
time.”
The White House has said he is still discussing timing with his
doctors.
Trump was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October and given an
experimental monoclonal antibody treatment that he credited for his
swift recovery. A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
advisory board has said people who received that treatment should
wait at least 90 days to be vaccinated to avoid any potential
interference.
“When the time is right, I’m sure he will remain willing to
take it,” White House spokesperson Brian Morgenstern echoed
Friday. “It’s just something we’re working through.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, however, offered a
different explanation for the delay. She told reporters last week
that Trump was holding off, in part, “to show Americans that our
priority are the most vulnerable.”
“The President wants to send a parallel message, which is, you
know, our long-term care facility residents and our frontline
workers are paramount in importance, and he wants to set an example
in that regard,” she said.
The CDC’s
Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has said the
Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to receive
authorization, “is safe and likely efficacious” for people who
have been infected with COVID-19 and “should be offered
regardless of history of prior symptomatic or asymptomatic
SARS-CoV-2 infection.”
While there is no recommended minimum wait time between
infection and vaccination, because reinfection is uncommon in the
three months after a person is infected, the committee said people
who tested positive in the preceding 90 days “may delay
vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired.”
The panel also recommends that those who received Trump’s
treatment put off vaccination for at least 90 days.
“Currently, there are no data on the safety and efficacy of
Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccination in persons who received
monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as part of COVID-19
treatment,”
they wrote, recommending that vaccination “be deferred for at
least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional
information becomes available, to avoid interference of the
antibody treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses.”
Surgeon General Jerome Adams cited that recommendation on
CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday when asked if Trump planned
to receive the shot on camera.
“From a scientific point of view, I will remind people that
the president has had COVID within the last 90 days. He received
the monoclonal antibodies. And that is actually one scenario where
we tell people maybe you should hold off on getting the vaccine,
talk to your health provider to find out the right time,” Adams
said.
But others, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top
infectious diseases expert, have recommended that Trump be
vaccinated without delay.
“Even though the president himself was infected, and he has,
likely, antibodies that likely would be protective, we’re not
sure how long that protection lasts. So, to be doubly sure, I would
recommend that he get vaccinated,” he told ABC News.
___
Colvin reported from Washington. Associated Press writer
Jonathan Lemire in New York contributed to this report.
