President-elect Joe Biden received the first dose of his COVID-19 vaccine in Delaware on today, posing for the cameras as a local nurse administrated the shot.
‘There is nothing to worry about,’ he said as he reassured the public the vaccine was safe.
Biden also gave credit to President Trump’s administration for its roll out of the cure.
About 24 million people are expected to be given the first round of shots.
The president-elect thanked the medical staff and urged Americans to follow coronavirus restrictions during the upcoming holiday period, including wearing face masks and practicing social distancing.
Biden, wearing a dark long-sleeved turtleneck, rolled up his left sleeve to receive the Pfizer vaccine. He wore a black cloth face mask over a white N95 mask during his visit.
‘I’m ready,’ he told the nurse administrating the shot.
‘You just go ahead any time you’re ready,’ he told her after she applied alcohol to his bicep.
Biden had no visible reaction as he received the shot, which was dispensed by Tabe Mase, Nurse Practitioner and Head of Employee Health Services at ChristianaCare Hospital in Newark, Del.
He thanked Mase and elbow bumped her afterward.
He also received his vaccine card and will need a second shot within 21 days.
Dr. Jill Biden, received her first dose of the Pfizer vaccine – which requires two shots – earlier today.
She was present, standing by the president-elect, as he received his shot.
He grasped her hand before it was administered.
Afterward, he joked his wife ‘loves’ shots.
‘I’m looking forward to the second shot, so is Jill. She’s had her shot earlier today. She loves shots, I know,’ he said as Jill Biden laughed.
Biden, who at 78 will be the oldest president ever inaugurated, is in a high-risk category because of his age.
In brief remarks after receiving his dosage, Biden credited Trump’s administration with getting the Pfizer vaccine distributed.
The U.S. added a second COVID-19 vaccine to its arsenal on Friday when the FDA approved Moderna’s for emergency use.
‘One of the things is I think the administration deserves some credit getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed,’ he said, giving kudos to his predecessor in the White House.
He said he received his shot publicly so people would know there is nothing to worry about in receiving it.
‘I also think that it’s worth saying that this is great hope. I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it’s available to take the vaccine,’ he said.
Biden also reminded Americans to take care over the holidays and noted this was just the beginning of the vaccination stage and a nationwide rollout would talke time.
‘The important thing is that it’s worth stating that, you know, this is just the beginning,’ he said. ‘It’s going to take time.’
He urged Americans to listen to the advice of experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
‘In the meantime, I know I don’t want to sound like a sour note here, but I hope people listen to all the experts and Dr. Fauci talking about the need to wear masks during this Christmas and new year’s holidays. Wear masks, socially distance, and if you don’t have to travel, don’t travel. Don’t travel. It’s really important,’ Biden said.
Fauci will receive his vaccine on Tuesday, according to reports, and will given Moderna’s version of it.
The country is not out of the woods yet, Biden noted. He has previously warned of a ‘dark winter’ as the country battles the pandemic.
Numbers are on the rise in the United States with more than 3,000 people dying a day from COVID.
‘We’re still in the thick of this,’ Biden said. ‘It’s one thing to have the vaccine show up at a hospital. It’s another thing to get the vaccine from that vial into a needle, into an arm. And there are millions of people out there that are going to need this. Front line workers first. But I just want to thank everyone for all that they’ve done. You’re some real heroes,’ he said.
The president-elect followed the lead of Vice President Mike Pence, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers in getting the shot publicly in order to show it’s safe.
Jen Psaki, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters last week that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff will be getting vaccinated the week after the Bidens, as healthcare advisers urged Biden and Harris to stagger their doses in case of unexpected side effects or a rare allergic reaction.
Biden received his shot the day after his nominee for U.S. Surgeon General said the general public might not get a coronavirus vaccine until mid summer or early fall – months later than had previously been touted.
Earlier this year, officials from the Trump administration had suggested that an American who wants a vaccine could get one between April and June 2021.
However, Dr Vivek Murthy said that timeline is not practical.
‘I think when it comes to the vaccine timeline, we all want the vaccine to be delivered as quickly, as fairly as possible, and you can be sure that every day and night, myself and others on the Biden team are working toward that,’ Murthy told NBC News’ Meet The Press on Sunday.
‘But we also want to be realistic about the timeline’.
He added that it was possible that the vaccine – which is currently being given to high-risk individuals including frontline healthcare workers and nursing home residents – could be available in the spring to those at lower risk of contracting COVID-19.
However, for this to happen ‘that would really require everything to go exactly on schedule,’ Murthy said.
‘I think it’s more realistic to assume that it may be closer to mid-summer, early fall when this vaccine makes its way to the general population.’
This means the disruption to people’s lives – that many thought would be over by Easter – will continue for several more months.
Fauci has said on numerous occasions that he believes the general public will get vaccinate around March or April 2021.
It could be ‘sometime by the end of March, the beginning of April, that the normal healthy man and woman in the street who has no underlying conditions would likely get it,’ the nation’s top infectious disease expert told MSNBC last week.
He said he believes by late spring or early summer, the U.S. could reach potential herd immunity.
‘By the time that we get into the fall, we can start approaching some degree of relief where the level of infection will be so slow in society, we can start approaching some form of normality,’ Fauci said.
Lieutenant General Paul Ostrowski, director of supply, production, and distribution for Operation Warp Speed, said last month that every American who wants a COVID-19 vaccine can get one by June.
Adm Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), has made similar comments.
In the first stage of the vaccine rollout, most states followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommendation that healthcare workers and nursing home residents get the very first doses.
On Sunday, a CDC advisory panel recommended frontline essential workers and elderly Americans should be next in line to received a COVID-10 vaccine.
The panel voted 13-1 in favor of the move that, in all, would make 49 million people eligible to receive the vaccine in the next round, known as Phase 1B.
Several government officials and lawmakers have received it in order to establish a continuity of government.
Pence, Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell got vaccinated against the coronavirus Friday.