Vice President Mike Pence will publicly receive a Covid-19 vaccine on Friday, while President-elect Joe Biden is expected to receive an injection next week.
Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus task force, hopes to “promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build trust among the American people,” the White House said in a statement Wednesday.
His wife, Karen Pence, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams will receive the vaccine at Friday’s event, which will take place at the White House.
Meanwhile, Biden is expected to receive the vaccine next week, a transition official tells NBC News.
“I don’t want to lead the way, but I want to make sure we show the American people it’s safe to take,” Biden said in Wilmington, Delaware earlier Wednesday. “If I do it, I’ll do it in public so you can all see I get it done.”
The decision to publicly receive the vaccine marks a critical moment in the fight against Covid-19 as health officials are fighting some skepticism about the vaccine’s safety. The Food and Drug Administration has paved the way for Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine for emergency use this month as the country is still deep in the pandemic and the number of cases is rising across the country.
The virus has killed more than 300,000 people and infected more than 16.3 million people in the US alone.
Health workers in the United States were among the first Americans to receive the federally approved coronavirus vaccine this week.
Former Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton have also volunteered to take the vaccine on camera to build public confidence in the coronavirus vaccine. It is unclear when President Donald Trump will receive a vaccine. During Monday’s briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president is “absolutely open to taking the vaccine.”
