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Biden receives COVID-19 vaccine on live television

21 December 2020
Dan Ackermann

President-elect Joe Biden publicly received his first dose of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine in Delaware on Monday.

Why it matters: Biden, who at 78 years old is at risk for a more severe coronavirus infection, said he wanted to receive the shot live on television in order to bolster public confidence in the vaccine, which has been found by the FDA to be safe and 95% effective.

The big picture: Vice President Mike Pence, second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams received Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine live on television last Friday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other members of Congress received the shot on Friday as well.

  • President Trump tweeted earlier this month that he was “not scheduled” to take it, but looked "forward to doing so at the appropriate time.”
  • Dozens of White House staff and members of President Trump's inner circle have tested positive for COVID-19 over the past few months of the pandemic.

What's next: Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Douglas Emhoff are scheduled to receive the vaccine next week.

What they're saying: Biden said through his mask after receiving his shot, "We owe these folks an awful lot. The scientists and the people who put this together, frontline workers, people who were the ones who actually did the clinical work, it's just amazing..."

  • "I think that the administration deserves some credit, getting this off the ground with operation warp speed. I also think that it's worth saying that this is great hope of doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it's available to take the vaccine," he added.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.