By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

Washington, D.C. — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, America's first Black and first woman vice president, took a shot of the Moderna vaccine live on television on Tuesday and urged Americans, particularly Blacks and other minorities, to also take the vaccine as Blacks are dying of the deadly disease at a rate at least three to five times higher than that of Whites, data show.

“I want to encourage everyone to get the vaccine — it is relatively painless. It is safe," Harris said.

Exactly how many people will embrace the vaccine, which provides acquired immunity to COVID-19, remains to be seen as Blacks are more skeptical in large numbers and lower class and less educated Americans are also more reluctant to take the vaccine, which ever vaccine brand, none of them approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to be administered to people under 18-years old.

The virus has spread to all 50 states and Washington, D.C. and the nation has more than 81 million reported cases and some 341,000 people dead since early March when the pandemic hit the U.S. with a vengeance, worldwide figures showing that there are some 82 million cases globally and roughly 1.8 million deaths.

Harris took the vaccine behind President-elect Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Dr. Jill Biden, both of them taking their vaccine shots live last week on television.

Harris' husband, millionaire entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff, also took the vaccine Tuesday.

The vice president under former president Barack Obama, the nation's first Black president, Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20 when both he and Harris take office amid political discourse as President Trump still refuses to concede the presidential election he lost on Nov 3 to Biden.

Harris, 55, is the first woman of color to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America.

When she accepted the Democratic nomination for vice president relative to the Democratic National Convention in August she spoke out on racism, among a number of public policy issues impacting the Black community and others, including the pandemic.

She blamed the partisan divisiveness in the country on the Trump administration.

She said then that Trump is too controversial, and that he is mean.

"The constant chaos leaves us adrift," Harris said. "The incompetence makes us feel afraid."

With millions of Americans watching across most major television and cable channels, she shined during the vice presidential debate on Oct 7 in Salt Lake City, Utah, and out did Vice President Mike Pence, polls said.

A former California attorney general, the junior federal lawmaker is a native of Oakland who was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2016.

She became the fourth woman to compete on a major party presidential ticket in America behind vice presidential candidates Sarah Palin in 2008 and Geraldine Ferraro in 1984, and Hillary Clinton in 2016, Clinton a presidential candidate that year.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

Washington, D.C. — The Democratically-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted Monday, 275-134, to approve a bill for $2,000 stimulus checks relative to the coronavirus pandemic, the measure heading Tuesday afternoon to the Republican-dominated U.S. Senate for possible approval there.

The bill seeks to remedy a discrepancy between Congressional Democrats and Republicans over the amount of monies allocated for individuals struggling to put food on the table as the crimpling pandemic rages across America, and the world. 

The House voted 359-53 last Monday to pass a $900 billion Covid-19 relief package shorty before the Senate approved the measure in a 92-6 vote.

It was the second major relief bill since the coronavirus pandemic hit the country in early March with a vengeance, this latest package providing stimulus checks of up to $600 per person for individuals earning $75,000 per year and married couples who earn up to $150,000, with $600 more for each dependent under 18 living in the same household.

President Trump, however, initially refused to sign the $900 billion relief package measure and instead demanded an increase in individual stimulus checks from $600 $2,000.

He later signed the deal into law with the expectation that stimulus monies would be increased.

The $900 billion relief bill also provides $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies through September and contains other end-of-session priorities such as an increase in food stamp benefits

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sided with the president as to the need for increased stimulus monies and led the House in passing the bill for $2,000 in stimulus checks.

Regardless, stimulus relief checks, if and when Congress approves them, are not expected until sometime in January.

Congressional Democrats remain upset over the manner in which the Republicans handled the coronavirus stimulus relief issues vis this last effort at bringing a degree of economic relief to the American people.

“American families should not have had to wait this long for coronavirus relief,” said Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat whose ninth congressional district extends to Cleveland and the longest serving woman in the U.S House. “It is a national disgrace that Senate Republicans refused to act for over half a year while COVID-19 ravaged our nation, infecting over 17.2 million Americans and killing over 310,000, resulting in devastating public health and economic crises affecting every single person in this country.”

The federal lawmaker said that House and Senate Republicans had acted irresponsibly in limiting this most recent round of coronavirus stimulus relief payments to $600.

“Despite Democrats’ efforts for larger relief payments, Republicans flatly refused and limited this legislation to a payment of $600 in direct relief even as coronavirus continues to infect more people on a daily basis than at any other point in the pandemic," said Kaptur. "While the direct aid is half of what we were able to approve last spring, the need has surely not subsided.

The congresswoman said that "the fact that this bill extends exactly zero dollars to state and local governments to aid in their coronavirus response is a disgrace and  a failure of government."

She said that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans "ought to be ashamed."

"All of this just three years after Republicans passed a $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut bill for corporations and the wealthy," she said.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest, and the most read independent digital news in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.