Show an ad over header. AMP

Hundreds of Biden staffers receive COVID vaccine

26 January 2021
Dan Ackermann

A week into the job, President Biden's White House medical team has administered the coronavirus vaccine to several hundred staffers — and aims to vaccinate all in-person staff over the next few weeks, officials tell Axios.

Why it matters: The new administration is ramping up steps to protect President Biden — but also to protect all staff working inside the complex. The administration is also requiring daily employee COVID tests and N95 masks at all times.

Details: Emails to White House staffers began going out earlier this month with the subject line, "Invitation to receive COVID-19 Vaccination."

  • The emails reflect recent guidance to staff around the new administration's tight COVID-19 protocols.

What they're saying: "As we announced last month, approximately three dozen incoming members of the senior staff, national security team and incoming cabinet nominees received their first dose in early January," White House spokesperson Kevin Munoz told Axios.

  • "The White House medical team has vaccinated several hundred additional staffers from the Executive Office of the President who are working on site every day ... to ensure a COVID-safe working environment around the president and key leaders who have national security and continuity of government responsibilities."

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

Section2

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.