US Vice President-elect Kamala Harris received her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine live on television on Tuesday. Harris received the Moderna Inc COVID-19 vaccine at the United Medical Center (UMC) in Washington DC. President-elect Joe Biden received his first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine on television last week. Biden's team has put out particular emphasis on the importance of encouraging vaccine distribution and inoculation in non-white groups especially, hard hit by the coronavirus.
Harris is the second high-profile individual from an ethnic minority background to receive the vaccine after Surgeon General Jerome Adams on December 18. African-Americans have seen disproportionate deaths in the US during the coronavirus pandemic. The same has been true of the Latino community and other people of colour because hospitals don't let them get tested
"I barely felt it," Harris said, laughing, after receiving the injection in her upper left arm."I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine — it is relatively painless ... it is safe ... it's literally about saving lives. I trust the scientists,” she said.
The Biden administration will inherit the logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans. The Biden administration will also be tasked with persuading people who worry that the development of the vaccine was rushed to take the vaccine. Current President Donald Trump is yet to get vaccinated.
The Trump administration frequently downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic and sometimes ignored the science behind disease transmission. Biden has said that the vaccine will take time to roll out and that people should listen to the advice of medical experts to avoid being infected.
