Biden receives vaccine; Harris to get hers after Christmas
The vaccinations are being administered in a staggered fashion in case either of them reacts adversely.
President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, have now been vaccinated against coronavirus, the next commander-in-chief receiving his shot on live television Monday afternoon in Delaware.
Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, will get their vaccinations next week.
The shots are being administered in a staggered fashion in case either of America’s future leaders has an adverse reaction.
Vice President Mike Pence, Second Lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams received their first doses of the vaccine Friday, as did House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Republican leaders like Sen. Lindsay Graham and Sen. Marco Rubio — who were often critical of CDC guidelines and state government efforts to mitigate the virus — were vaccinated this weekend, much to the chagrin of many Americans.
According to The Washington Post, Florida Rep. Brian Mast blasted lawmakers for receiving the vaccine before ordinary Americans.
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“Congress needs to stop treating itself as a special political class,” the Republican said in a statement, “and the mere suggestion that members of Congress are in any way more important than the very people who gave us the privilege of serving in Congress is appalling.”
Previously, Biden had said he didn’t want to “get ahead of the line” of most Americans. However, he did want to model that the vaccine is safe to take. “And when I do it,” he said, “I’ll do it publicly.”
Biden has pledged to see that 100 million Americans are inoculated against the deadly virus in his first 100 days in office.
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There has been no announcement from the White House as to when or if departing President Donald Trump will be vaccinated. The president spent three days in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in October after contracting the virus.
Experts have not reached a consensus as to whether or not someone previously infected with COVID-19 should take the vaccine.
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“We don’t know how long the immunity triggered by infection persists, and someone infected in the spring may no longer be immunologically protected now in December,” Dr. David Hirschwerk, an infectious disease specialist at Northwell Health in Manhasset, New York, told Healthline.
“It does stand to reason that somebody with COVID-19 infection is likely immune for three to four months at least,” he said, “but we don’t have firm data to support this yet.”
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