US political leaders, including Biden, line up for early vaccine

President-elect Joe Biden

Several senior US officials including Vice President Mike Pence got early COVID-19 vaccinations Friday, contrasting with Europe, where two leaders were quarantining after testing positive and EU regulators have yet to approve a vaccine.

President-elect Joe Biden, who will take office on January 20, announced he would take the vaccine, also in public, on Monday. Yet, in hard-hit Europe, unease mounted after Slovakia's 47-year-old Prime Minister Igor Matovic tested positive on Friday for COVID-19 a week after attending a European Union summit in Brussels.

The summit is believed to be where French President Emmanuel Macron caught the virus-the announcement of his diagnosis a day earlier led a host of European leaders and top French officials to rush into self-isolation. Elsewhere, world leaders from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are also pledging to get public injections in order to boost confidence in the vaccines.

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