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Joe Biden to receive Covid vaccine today as Donald Trump still to be vaccinated

President-elect Joe Biden is to receive a Covid vaccination today. Picture by Kevin Lamarque, Pool via AP
President-elect Joe Biden is to receive a Covid vaccination today. Picture by Kevin Lamarque, Pool via AP President-elect Joe Biden is to receive a Covid vaccination today. Picture by Kevin Lamarque, Pool via AP

US president-elect Joe Biden will receive his Covid-19 vaccination today.

US Vice President Mike Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell were vaccinated on Friday.

All have chosen to publicise their injections as part of a campaign to convince a sceptical public that the vaccines are safe and effective.

The pandemic has killed more than 310,000 people in the United States alone.

President Donald Trump has not received the first of two vaccination shots, which began being administered last week as part of the largest vaccination campaign in the nation's history.

Mr Trump has spent the last week largely out of sight following his election loss.

He was hospitalised with Covid-19 in October and given an experimental monoclonal antibody treatment that he credited for his swift recovery.

The leader of the Trump administration's vaccination program says people who have been infected with the coronavirus - a group that includes Mr Trump - should be vaccinated.

Moncef Slaoui, chief adviser of Operation Warp Speed, told CNN's State Of The Union yesterday that the vaccine is safe for those who have recovered and offers stronger and potentially longer protection than does the virus itself.

"We know that infection doesn't induce a very strong immune response and it wanes over time. So I think, as a clear precaution, it is appropriate to be vaccinated because it's safe," he said. "I think people should be vaccinated, indeed."

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention's Advisory Committee on Immunisation Practices said the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which was the first to receive authorisation, "is safe and likely efficacious" in people who have been infected with Covid-19 and "should be offered regardless of history of prior symptomatic or asymptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection".

While there is no recommended minimum wait time between infection and vaccination, because reinfection is uncommon in the three months after a person is infected, the committee said people who tested positive in the preceding 90 days "may delay vaccination until near the end of this period, if desired".

The advisers also recommended that those who received the kind of treatment Mr Trump did should put off being vaccinated for at least 90 days to avoid potential interference.

"Currently, there are no data on the safety and efficacy of Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination in persons who received monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma as part of Covid-19 treatment," they wrote, recommending that vaccination "be deferred for at least 90 days, as a precautionary measure until additional information becomes available, to avoid interference of the antibody treatment with vaccine-induced immune responses".

Mr Trump, who has spread misinformation about vaccine risks in the past, tweeted earlier this month that he was "not scheduled to take the vaccine, but look forward to doing so at the appropriate time".

The White House has said he is still in discussion with his medical team about when he should.

"When the time is right, I'm sure he will remain willing to take it," White House spokesman Brian Morgenstern said on Friday. "It's just something we're working through."