US Vice President M.Pence gets COVID vaccine

U.S. Vice President Mike Pence received his COVID-19 vaccine live on television on Friday, seeking to shore up public support for vaccinations after U.S. deaths from the coronavirus topped 3,000 for a third straight day.

Pence, his wife Karen Pence, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams each rolled up their sleeves and took injections from medical staff in white coats, becoming the highest-profile recipients to receive the vaccine publicly.

They were injected with the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE that the Food and Drug Administration authorized for emergency use a week ago.

The FDA on Friday was expected to approve a second vaccine for emergency use, this one from Moderna Inc.

Both vaccines require two doses, given three or four weeks apart, for each person inoculated.

After answering routine questions about their health, the Pence family took their injections in the Old Executive Office Building on the White House campus, seated in front of a blue curtain and screens that declared, “Safe and Effective” and “Operation Warp Speed.”

Departing President Donald Trump has yet to embrace messages about social distancing and mask-wearing, he has encouraged people to get vaccinated and championed his administration’s Operation Warp Speed program to promote the development and distribution of vaccines.

But Trump, who survived a clash with COVID-19 a few weeks before losing the Nov. 3 election to Biden, has yet to announce his plans for getting a shot.