The shot, which Biden received in the left arm, was administered at ChristianaCare Hospital in Newark, Delaware, by Tabe Masa, who is a nurse practitioner and the chief of health services for employees at the hospital, according to the Biden transition team.
“We owe these people an awful lot,” said Biden, thanking those involved in the development and distribution of the vaccine and primary health care professionals.
Biden said the Trump administration deserved “some credit” for Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s vaccination program, and their role in enabling vaccinations against the coronavirus.
“I also think it’s worth saying that this is great hope. I’m doing this to show that people need to be prepared, when it’s available, to take the vaccine. There’s nothing to worry about. I’m looking forward to the second shot, just like Jill, “Biden said.
She had her injection earlier today. She likes injections, I know, ”he said, taking his wife by the hand as she laughed.
Biden noted that the vaccine rollout was in its early stages and warned Americans of the long road ahead.
“It’s going to take time,” he said.
The president-elect urged Americans in the meantime to listen to public health experts and wear masks and social distance and not travel unless absolutely necessary during the holidays.
“Because we’re still in the middle of this,” Biden continued. “It’s one thing to get the vaccine to appear in a hospital, it’s another to get the vaccine out of that bottle into a needle into an arm.”
Biden’s vaccination came a week after the first doses of the vaccine were injected to health professionals, and days after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved emergency use for a second coronavirus vaccine. Incoming first lady Jill Biden received the vaccine earlier on Monday, the Biden transition team told reporters.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses administered several weeks apart to achieve 95% efficacy. The transition team has not provided details on when the Bidens will receive the second dose.
The country’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, told ABC last week that he would strongly recommend that Biden and Harris get vaccinated as soon as possible. He also recommended that President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence get the vaccination.
Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper earlier this month that he would get the vaccine as soon as Fauci told him it was safe, and that he would do it in public to show his confidence in it.
Psaki told reporters that Biden and Harris were faltering the vaccine on the advice of medical experts. The reason could be that if Biden and Harris experienced the reported side effects, such as headaches or fever, they wouldn’t get them on the same day.
Pence, second lady Karen Pence, and surgeon general Jerome Adams were given the vaccine at a camera event last week. The Trump administration has said that the fact that the vice president receives the vaccine in public is part of the government’s efforts to build public confidence in the safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
Trump has not yet received the vaccine and will not receive one until recommended by the White House medical team, a White House official told CNN last week. The president is still receiving the benefits of the monoclonal antibody cocktail he was given after testing positive for Covid-19 this fall, the official said, but he will likely receive his injection as soon as it is recommended by the medical team.
Part of Biden’s plan to fight the pandemic includes spreading 100 million shots, enough to cover 50 million people, in his first 100 days in office. The coronavirus pandemic had killed more than 318,000 Americans on Monday afternoon.