For any Republicans out there who would enjoy watching Gov. Gavin Newsom get jabbed with a sharp needle, here's your chance. The governor on Thursday received a “one and done” shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the same day that people 50 and older became eligible for inoculations in the country's most populous state.
A masked Gov. Gavin Newsom kept the mood of the on-air vaccination light, bantering as he pulled up the sleeve of his short-sleeved T-shirt. He joked that he brought his own doctor, state Health and Human Services Agency Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly.
“Nothing to be nervous about,” Ghaly said, before poking the governor in the arm.
Journalist cameras clicked as the crowd gathered broke into applause. Newsom breathed in deeply after the shot. He disappeared from cameras for his 15-minute waiting period.
The vaccination took place in the mostly vacant first floor of a Los Angeles shopping mall in a historically Black neighborhood.
The Democratic governor, who faces a recall election stemming partly from his handling of the pandemic, dressed casually in jeans and the T-shirt. He sat on a folding plastic chair.
Newsom is 53 and had said he would wait his turn for the vaccine.
California has administered more than 18 million doses as of Thursday, and 6.7 million people are fully vaccinated. The state has nearly 40 million residents.
—Michael R. Blood, Associated Press, and Jon Brooks