COVID-19: Joe Biden to receive second dose of vaccine in front of media on Jan 11

The United States President-elect Joe Biden will receive his second dose of COVID-19 vaccine today, his office confirmed, adding he will be administered the jab in front of the media. This comes three weeks after Biden received his first dose on live television, a move to build confidence around the vaccines among American citizens. Biden is following the protocol set by the manufacturers and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which require recipients to receive the booster shot within three weeks of being inoculated with the first dose. 

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Biden received his first dose of COVID-19 vaccine on December 21 following which he praised health care workers as "heroes". After receiving the shot with his wife Jill Biden, the former vice-president said he is taking the vaccine live on TV to demonstrate it is absolutely safe for people to take the drug. Biden had also praised the scientists and the Trump administration for getting the vaccine out in such a short time. 

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'Not happy with vaccine distribution' 

Biden, however, said that he is not happy with the speed at which the vaccines were being distributed across the country. The Democratic leader has said that the first thing he will do after taking office will be to release all the available doses of vaccines in order to speed up the inoculation of booster shots, in line with the protocol. The Trump administration faced a lot of backlashes after it failed to achieve the target of vaccinating 20 million people before the end of 2020, reaching only 3 million by year-end. 

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The US government has managed to inoculate about 6.7 million people so far, way short of the target, which includes health care professionals and other frontline essential workers. The United States is the worst affected country in the world with more than 22 million cases and at least 3,74,000 deaths to date. 

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(Image Credit: AP)