US Vice President Mike Pence, second lady get vaccinated in public

Washington, Dec 18 (UNI) US Vice President Mike Pence and his wife Second Lady Karen Pence received Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccination in public on Friday, becoming the first senior White House officials to undergo the procedure. “I didn’t feel a thing. Well done, and I appreciate your service to the country,” Pence told the team of nurses who administered the vaccines.
The pair was joined by Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who was also vaccinated live on television. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania, both of whom have already contracted COVID-19, have not specified when they will get immunized for the virus.
Pence said the United States will be ready to ship nearly 6 million doses of coronavirus vaccines by next week if Moderna Inc gets final clearance later on Friday for its vaccine to join Pfizer in distribution.
“In fact, under Operation Warp Speed, we are poised to have vaccines for 20 million Americans before the end of December,” Pence said, referring to the Trump administration’s vaccine task force for the pandemic.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine late on Thursday was voted safe for emergency use by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel. US Health Secretary Alex Azar has also said he expects the vaccine to be cleared by the FDA for distribution by the end of Friday.
Azar said last week he expected some 100 million Americans to be immunized against the virus by the end of February, following approval granted to the Pfizer vaccine.
The White House has contracted for 800 million COVID-19 vaccines from five drug-makers in all, with options to get up to 3 billion doses, Azar added.
Despite hope offered by vaccines, the coronavirus pandemic has raged a new in the United States in recent weeks, after a respite in the summer to early fall period. Infections have crossed 17 million since January, hospitalization has hit daily record highs of above 100,000 and the death toll has breached 310,000 in total.