we start on the breaking news that u.s
vice president mike pence
has become the first senior figure in
the trump administration
to receive a coronavirus vaccine which
he called a medical miracle
and he did so in a very public way
alongside his wife
and the u.s surgeon general jerome adams
in front of
cameras at the white house the vice
president and his wife rolled up their
sleeves
to get their first dose of the pfizer
biontech jab
this move comes as officials are
mounting campaigns to quash
skepticism about the record fast
development of the drugs
history will record that this week was
the beginning of the end of the
coronavirus pandemic
but with cases rising across the country
with hospitalizations rising across the
country
we have a ways to go and i want to
assure the american people
that we're going to continue to make
sure that our health care providers have
all the support and resources they need
to meet this moment but vigilance
and the vaccine is our way through
and building confidence in the vaccine
is what brings us
here this morning our correspondent in
washington nomia iqbal says mike pence
appears much more engaged in the fight
against coronavirus
than president trump you know mike pence
is the head of the chronovirus task
force he wanted to
show confidence by taking
the vaccine publicly notably absent from
any of these public proceedings so far
as we were talking
uh just before mike pence started
speaking is
president trump you know president trump
hasn't
been scheduled to take the vaccine
publicly the white house has said
that because he had the virus already he
might have
antibodies which means he doesn't need
to take the vaccine but dr anthony fauci
the
america's most trusted voice on this has
said that that's not true you would
still
need to take the vaccine uh president
trump seems to already
also he's been far more focused on
trying to overturn
the election results uh than uh anything
else
uh he did tweet at the time of the the
fisa vaccine being rolled out over the
weekend
that he would look forward to taking it
uh at the appropriate time
he has actually tweeted this morning as
well saying that the second vaccine from
moderna has been
approved but that's not true we're still
waiting for the green light from the fda
on that as mike pence
uh mentioned there and of course this
comes at a really important time which
mike
the vice president mike pence refers to
there when numbers are going up around 3
000 americans
are dying every day from coronavirus and
experts
are putting a lot of that down to travel
during the thanksgiving period despite
public pleas for americans to
to avoid doing that and there is concern
that we could see a repeat of that with
christmas just around the corner
and nomia one other key point uh in
congress
legislators are still talking about the
stimulus bill i know that a lot of the
funding
the relief funding for americans runs
out
the day after christmas day and so there
is a real sense of urgency with
so many people having lost jobs and
businesses under threat
in the states as around the world
that's right both parties are continuing
to to try and thrash out this deal
there's been sticking points
uh either side uh for this uh huge uh
nearly 900 million dollar covert 198
bill
some of the things that americans can
expect to get are 600
stimulus checks also an extension of
employment benefits
uh they are expected to to keep working
to thrash out that deal
before christmas recess today senators
have
indicated that if that doesn't happen
that it will push into the weekend
but it's also important to note
something else
with the vaccine arriving on capitol
hill i think a lot of lawmakers want to
to you know avoid any perception that
high-ranking
ranking members of uh you know
the senate are getting the vaccine
before americans
we are expecting the american public to
start getting the vaccines
starting next year in march according to
dr fauci
but just to give you a stats here
according to a recent poll just 16
of the public think elected officials
should be first in line for the vaccine