US Vice President Mike Pence and the leaders of the US House of Representatives and the US Senate received their first doses of a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday as they tried to reassure the US public that the shot is safe.
Pence, in a live-television event, celebrated the milestone as “a medical miracle” that could eventually put an end to the raging COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 313,000 people nationwide.
Conspicuously absent was US President Donald Trump, who has remained largely out of sight five days into the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history.
Photo: AP
“I didn’t feel a thing. Well done,” Pence told the technicians from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Friday morning as he became the highest-ranking US official to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech shot, the first authorized in the US.
Later, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Republican, posted on Twitter photographs of themselves receiving the vaccine from the Capitol physician, who urged all members of the US Congress to join them.
The public displays come as top US health officials are trying to persuade regular Americans who might be skeptical of the vaccinations to get them to pave the way for the end of the pandemic.
A recent survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that only about half of Americans want to get the vaccine as soon as possible.
Another quarter of the public is not sure, while the remaining quarter said they are not interested. Some simply oppose vaccines in general. Others are concerned that the injections have been rushed and want to see how the rollout goes.
Trump, who was hospitalized with COVID-19 in October, has been largely absent from the effort to sell the US public on what aides hope would be a key part of his legacy.
Trump’s relative silence comes as he continues to rage about his defeat in the Nov. 3 US presidential election and embraces increasingly extreme efforts to overturn the US public’s will.
He has pushed aside the plans of aides who wanted him to be the public face of the vaccination campaign, eschewing visits to labs and production facilities to thank workers, or hosting efforts to build public confidence in the shot, said people familiar with the conversations who spoke on condition of anonymity to speak candidly.
Instead, Pence has been the one in the spotlight highlighting the safety and efficacy of the vaccines, touring a production facility this week before headlining Friday’s event.
Pence did not flinch during the quick prick, nor did his wife, Karen.
US Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who is black, also received a shot during the televised White House event and stressed the importance of communities of color seeing people like him being vaccinated to build trust.
“Today, Karen and I wanted to step forward and take this vaccine to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners,” Pence said. “Hope is on the way.”
Trump’s lack of visibility has been surprising, especially for a president rarely shy to take credit, said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown Law who focuses on public health.
“The president’s relatively low profile on the COVID response since the election is curious and counter to Mr Trump’s own interests,” he said.
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