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 Pence will be the most high-profile recipient to date of a vaccine
that was rolled out in the United States this week with high hopes
of curbing a virus that has killed more than 300,000 Americans.
President-elect Joe Biden will publicly get the vaccine next week,
according to transition officials. At age 78, he is in the high-risk
group for the disease.
Biden has vowed to make the fight against the virus his top priority
when he takes office on Jan. 20. Republican President Donald Trump,
who lost the Nov. 3 election to Biden, frequently downplayed the
severity of the pandemic and feuded with his top public health
officials.
The vaccine, made by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE, is
expected to be widely available to Americans next year. Another
vaccine from Moderna Inc could win approval from the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration this week.
Many Americans remain skeptical. Only 61% of respondents in a
Reuters/Ipsos poll, conducted from Dec. 2 to 8, said they were open
to getting vaccinated. That is short of the 70% level that officials
say is needed to reach herd immunity, either through exposure or
vaccination. Roughly 5% of Americans have been infected.
One health worker in Alaska had a severe allergic reaction after
receiving the vaccine, officials said on Wednesday in what is
believed to be the only adverse reaction so far in the United
States.
Pence's wife, Karen, and Surgeon General Jerome Adams also will get
the vaccine on Friday, according to the White House.
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 Trump will get the vaccine when
his medical team decides it is best, according
to the White House. The president was
hospitalized after testing positive for COVID-19
this fall.
Interior Department Secretary David Bernhardt
tested positive for the virus on Wednesday,
according to a statement from his office.
Biden will inherit the logistical challenges of
distributing the vaccine, as well as the task of
persuading Americans to take it. One part of
that job will be reaching out to people who
worry that the vaccine's development was rushed
for political reasons.
One of those tasked by Biden with building
support, Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, told a Black
civil rights group on Wednesday that the science
was sound.
"The political interference risk was really,
really removed," Nunez-Smith said on a call with
the National Association for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan and Trevor Hunnicutt;
Additional reporting by Steve Gorman and Steve
Holland; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Peter
Cooney)
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