Vice President Kamala Harris described for the first time the side effects she experienced from the COVID-19 vaccine during an appearance to promote vaccine availability in retail pharmacies, part of a White House effort to address vaccine hesitancy.
“The first dose I was fine,” Harris said on Thursday while visiting a grocery store in Southeast Washington, D.C. “The second dose I thought I was fine, got up early in the morning, went to work, and then midday, I realized, yeah, I might need to slow down a bit.”
She added, “Just that one day.”
Harris was joined by the district’s Health Director LaQuandra Nesbitt during the visit to a local Giant supermarket in which the vaccine was administered to a woman named Brenda Thompson.
Pharmacist Samir Balile said during the visit that demand still exceeds supply — and noted the uncertainty some people had about the vaccine.
Patients “don’t know,” Balile said. “And for the most part, I think we all kind of don’t know, right?”
Harris quipped, “Well, you get a shot, and then, you get another shot.”
Balile said he heard concerns “more so about some of the side effects.”
The vice president received the Moderna vaccine at United Medical Center in southeast Washington. Her second dose was administered at the National Institutes of Health, her first visit to a federal agency.
The administration began shipping vaccine doses directly to some pharmacies this month in an effort to increase access for hard-hit communities, doubling the number from 1 million to 2 million doses, the White House said this week.
NIH DIRECTOR: TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SHOULD GET CREDIT FOR OPERATION WARP SPEED
Harris has repeatedly urged people to get vaccinated since taking office, particularly those living in black and minority communities where there are high rates of vaccine skepticism.
In an interview with MSNBC, clips of which aired Thursday, she said that black people were contracting the virus in disproportionate numbers, in part due to many of them working in front-line jobs.
“It will save your life,” Harris said. “Let’s not let COVID get us. Let’s get the vaccine instead.”
The vice president said a further 1 million doses had gone to community health centers.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Harris drew criticism last year when she expressed skepticism about the speed of vaccine development under Donald Trump, stating that she didn’t “trust” the former president and would wait until “the public health professionals and the scientists told us that we can trust it.” She later recanted her hesitancy.
