When will Joe Biden receive the Covid-19 vaccine?
Several senior US political figures have now recieved the Pfizer vaccine, however, president-elect Joe Biden and president Donald Trump have yet to get their first jab.
The long-awaited coronavirus vaccination program finally got underway in the United States on Monday following the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine last weekend. Some 2.9 million people will receive the first doses of the vaccine, with health care workers and the elderly identified as the first priority.
Four days on since the first shots were administered and several senior US political figures have begun to put themselves forward, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, vice-president Mike Pence and his wife Karen, who all got their first jab this Friday.
Vice-President Pence rolled up his sleeve on live TV along with Surgeon General Jerome Adams at an event at the White House, where officials said the move was to "promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the American people".
"Karen and I were more than happy to step forward before this week was out to take this safe and effective coronavirus vaccine that we have secured and produced for the American people," said Pence, calling it a "a truly inspiring day".
When will Joe Biden get the vaccine?
The White House event was not attended by President Donald Trump, who, like president-elect Joe Biden, has yet to receive the vaccine. Earlier this week, a White House official told CNN that Trump won’t be given the vaccine until it’s recommended by the White House medical team.
Biden, meanwhile, will reportedly get the vaccine next week, although the president-elect has yet to confirm when he will sit down for his first dose – only stating that when he does, he will do it publicly.
"I don't want to get ahead of the line, but I want to make sure we demonstrate to the American people that it is safe to take," Biden told reporters Wednesday in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. "When I do it, I'll do it publicly, so you can all witness my getting it done,” he added.
Fauci urges Biden to get vaccinated as soon as a possible
Biden had previously stated he would be happy to take any vaccine that was deemed safe by the nation's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who earlier this week urged the president-elect to get vaccinated as soon as possible for “security reasons”.
"For security reasons, I really feel strongly that we should get them vaccinated as soon as we possibly can. We want him fully protected as he enters the presidency in January. So that would be my strong recommendation,” said Fauci, who recently accepted the Biden’s offer to serve as the chief medical advisor to the new administration that will take office in January.
Biden could possibly get the Moderna vaccine
If Biden does eventually get vaccinated next week, he could very well be in line to take the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be imminently granted emergency-use authorization by the FDA after it was given the green light by a panel of experts on Thursday. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are based on novel messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, with Pfizer’s vaccine becoming the first-ever mRNA vaccine to be approved by the FDA.
FDA approval for Moderna’s mRNA candidate will be a monumental achievement for the ten-year-old biotechnology company that has long vowed to transform medicine by harnessing RNA – the molecule that cells naturally use to carry DNA’s instructions to cells’ protein-building machinery – as a therapeutic agent.