VP Mike Pence will be vaccinated for COVID-19 on Friday before cameras as a vaccine confidence-building public relations effort.
Pence, who drove the White House Covid-19 team, will be injected with the recently approved Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine alongside his better half, Karen Pence.
The White House reported the plans in a Wednesday night email blast.
The all-caps declaration stated, “VP MIKE PENCE TO PUBLICLY RECEIVE COVID-19 VACCINE TO BUILD CONFIDENCE AMONG AMERICANS.”
“On Friday, December 18th, Vice President Mike Pence and Second Lady Karen Pence will publicly receive a COVID-19 vaccine to promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the American people,” the White House release said.
“Vice President Pence and Second Lady Pence will be joined by Surgeon General Jerome Adams, who will also receive the vaccine. This event will take place at the White House.”
Pence, 61, is one of the only senior US officials with a ground-floor office in the West Wing who did not contract COVID-19 this year. He was a ready adopter of the “chicken wing” elbow-bump salutation as a risk-reduction tactic during the pandemic.
President Trump battled the virus in October and was hospitalized for three nights. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, national security adviser Robert O’Brien, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany and counselor to the president Hope Hicks also contracted and recovered from the virus.
Pence’s chief of staff Marc Short also contracted COVID-19.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to be vaccinated next week, also to encourage the public to receive the two-dose treatment when it becomes more widely available.
A member of the press who joined Biden for a Tuesday Senate campaign trip to Georgia tested positive for COVID-19, Biden’s press office said Wednesday.
