U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to publicly receive an injection of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday in an effort to boost confidence in its safety ahead of its wide distribution next year.
iden has vowed to make the fight against the coronavirus, which has killed more than 300,000 Americans and infected more than 17 million, his top priority when he takes office on Jan. 20. At age 78, he is in the high-risk group for the highly contagious respiratory disease.
A Biden transition official said the Democratic president-elect would receive a dose of the vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc, while Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would likely get the vaccine next week.
Biden will inherit the logistical challenges of distributing the vaccine to hundreds of millions of Americans, as well as the task of persuading people who worry its development was rushed for political reasons to take it.
President Donald Trump frequently has downplayed the severity of the pandemic and overseen a response health experts say was disorganized, cavalier and sometimes ignored the science behind disease transmission.
Efforts to limit the economic fallout on Americans from the pandemic were boosted on Sunday when congressional leaders agreed on a $900 billion package to provide the first new aid in months, with votes likely on Monday.
Source: Reuters
