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Coronavirus
As a new strain of coronavirus (COVID-19) swept through the world in 2020, preparedness plans, masking policies and more public policy changed just as quickly. WVXU has covered the pandemic's impact on the Tri-State from the very beginning, when on March 3, 2020, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine barred spectators from attending the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus over concerns about the virus, even though Ohio had yet to confirm a single case of COVID-19.

Vice President Pence To Get COVID-19 Vaccine Publicly On Friday

Updated at 7:11 p.m. ET

Vice President Pence will publicly receive a COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, the White House has announced.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams and second lady Karen Pence also will receive the vaccine.

President-elect Joe Biden is expected to receive the vaccine "as soon as next week," a transition official confirmed to NPR. Biden has also said he would get the vaccine publicly.

Pence, who chairs the White House Coronavirus Task Force, and other officials are working to instill trust in the vaccination process. By taking it in public, he hopes to "promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the American people," the White House said.

Pence will be the highest-ranking person yet to receive a COVID-19 vaccine publicly as distribution begins.

President Trump has credited his administration with fast-tracking vaccine development and has hailed it as among his greatest accomplishments in office.

Earlier this week, the United States crossed the grim milestone of 300,000 coronavirus deaths.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Alana Wise joined WAMU in September 2018 as the 2018-2020 Audion Reporting Fellow for Guns & America. Selected as one of 10 recipients nationwide of the Audion Reporting Fellowship, Alana works in the WAMU newsroom as part of a national reporting project and is spending two years focusing on the impact of guns in the Washington region.
Alana Wise
Alana Wise is a politics reporter on the Washington desk at NPR.