Trump Absent As Vice President Mike Pence Receives Covid-19 Vaccine Live On-Camera
Topline
Vice President Mike Pence received the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine live on television Friday morning in a bid to boost shaky public confidence in the vaccines’ safety, which has been undermined by their speedy development, months of politicization and reports of allergic reactions to shots in Alaska.
Vice President Pence received a Covid-19 vaccine at a White House event.
Getty Images
Key Facts
Along with the vice president, Surgeon General Jerome Adams and Second Lady Karen Pence received the vaccine, which was cleared for emergency use last week and rolled out across the U.S..
The vice president said he “didn’t feel a thing” and described the vaccine as a “medical miracle” that will turn the tide against the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, Pence said the U.S. still has “a ways to go” in stopping the pandemic, pointing to rising cases and deaths across the country.
President Donald Trump was notably absent from the event, which was held on White House grounds, and has still refused to confirm whether or not he will receive the vaccine.
Senior health officials were in attendance, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S.’ most senior infectious diseases official, said that it is “now up to all of us to step forward and get vaccinated.”
Surprising Fact
Maggie Haberman, New York Times reporter who has covered Trump for decades, speculated on CNN Friday that Trump did not want to be seen getting a shot for fear it seemed like “some kind of an act of weakness.”
Big Number
17 million. Over 17 million people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the U.S. since the pandemic began. The figure is likely this number is much higher, especially once asymptomatic cases are taken into account. Of these people, over 300,000 have died.
Key Background
As Covid-19 vaccines move from research and development to distribution and administration, one of the biggest problems is actually getting people vaccinated. Fauci says between 75% and 85% of Americans must be vaccinated in order to get life back to normal for all, something he hopes will be achieved in the first half of 2021. Many are hesitant to get vaccines in the first place and the issue is magnified with Covid-19, with wild conspiracy theories, outlandish misinformation and brazen denialism. In these circumstances, hesitancy is unsurprising and to be expected, especially, Surgeon General Adams noted, in groups that have been poorly served, or even exploited, by the medical establishment. He mentioned the Tuskegee syphilis studies as one instance where the U.S. government has given African Americans and people of color reason to distrust officials. President Trump, with his penchant for peddling falsehoods, has done little to instill public confidence, instead insisting on doing things at “warp speed” and openly pressuring officials to rush through approvals. While Trump seems willing to soak up praise for the speed at which the vaccines have been developed, his three most recent predecessors realize — alongside leaders elsewhere in the world — that the pandemic does not stop at the development of a vaccine, it will stop when enough people have taken the vaccine to interrupt the virus’ spread.
Further Reading
Mike Pence receives Covid-19 vaccine on live TV: ‘I didn’t feel a thing’ (Guardian)
U.K. Regulator Warns People With ‘Significant’ Allergies To Avoid Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine (Forbes)
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