Biden says he will take vaccine publicly after White House refused to say if Trump would

President-elect Joe Biden said he is working on a plan to take a coronavirus vaccine “publicly” but does not want to “jump to the front of the line” a day after a White House spokeswoman declined to say the same about Donald Trump.

The incoming chief executive said he sees his taking the vaccine in view of television cameras as important to help build public confidence in the drug. Some Americans, for various reasons that break on race and ideological lines, say they are reluctant to take it.

Medical experts have said life may not resemble “normal” until 70 per cent of Americans are either inoculated or have been infected by Covid-19. Mr Biden has acknowledged the difficulty of getting to that point.

That is a big reason he intends to take the vaccine in front of the media. 

Whether the man he will replace next month will do the same remains unknown.

“So the President, currently at this moment, has said he is absolutely open to taking the vaccine.  He’s been emphatic about that to me privately and to you all publicly.  But he did recently recover from COVID," White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said of Mr Trump on Tuesday.

“He has the continued protective effects of the monoclonal antibody cocktail that I mentioned, and he will receive the vaccine as soon as his medical team determines is best,” she added. “But his priority is frontline workers, those in long-term care facilities, and he wants to make sure that the vulnerable get access first.”

Ms McEnany did say “there will be some senior administration officials taking it publicly to instill that confidence; it is very important.”

But she never said Mr Trump intends to be pricked on national television.

“The president wants to send a parallel message, which is, you know, our long-term care facility residents and our frontline workers are paramount in importance, and he wants to set an example in that regard,” Ms McEnany said.