Incoming president Joe Biden received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine on live television on Monday.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Biden said after receiving the injection, joining various U.S. government officials who have been inoculated. At 78, Biden is in the age group at greatest risk for complications from coronavirus.
“I think that the administration deserves some credit for getting this off the ground with Operation Warp Speed,” Biden said, referring to the Trump administration’s vaccine development program.
Trump has not received a vaccine but was himself hospitalized with coronavirus in October. Vice President Mike Pence, 61, received the vaccine on Friday. Pence said that he was taking the vaccine on television “to assure the American people that while we cut red tape, we cut no corners” regarding the safety of the injection.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was designed, tested, and approved in less than a year, a record time for the development of a vaccine to be used on a wide scale. Moderna’s vaccine was also approved by the Food and Drug Administration on Friday.