President-elect Kamala Harris received her COVID-19 vaccine this week in Washington D.C. this Tuesday. The move was a step to help Americans feel more comfortable with being vaccinated.

According to CNN, Harris was quick to give positive feedback after the shot was over. She received a dose of the new Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

Kamala Harris, courtesy of Gulf News

“That was easy,” Harris said after receiving the shot. “Thank you. I barely felt it.”

“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine. It is relatively painless. It happens really quickly. It is safe,” Harris said. 

Harris’ husband Doug Emhoff received the vaccine with his wife. According to WUSA 9, the particular hospital they went to has its own significance. The two received their vaccinations at the United Medical Center in Southeast Washington, D.C. As a pillar in its community, United Medical Center is city’s only public hospital and serves D.C.’s majority Black neighborhoods on the east side of the river.

“I want to remind people that right in your community is where you can take the vaccine, where you will receive the vaccine, by folks you may know, folks who are otherwise working in the same hospital where your children were born. Folks who are working in the same hospital where an elderly relative received the kind of care that they needed,” Harris said.

United Medical Center clinical nurse manager Patricia Cummings administered the vaccine to Harris. Vice President-elect Harris’ vaccination was an important step in the struggle to get Americans to trust the vaccine. President-elect Biden received his vaccine last week, and other lawmakers have gotten vaccinated as well.

“I want to remind people that they have trusted sources of help and that’s where they will be available to go to get the vaccine. So I encourage them to do that,” Harris said.

“It’s literally about saving lives. I trust the scientists. And it is the scientists who created and approved this vaccine. So I urge everyone, when it is your turn, get vaccinated,” Harris said to encourage others.