Vice-President Mike Pence received a coronavirus vaccine on live television on Friday morning at the White House, a measure that the Trump administration said was intended to “promote the safety and efficacy of the vaccine and build confidence among the American people”.

“I didn’t feel a thing,” he said shortly after receiving the shot. “Well done.”

His wife, Karen, and Jerome Adams, the surgeon-general, also received the vaccine. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert; Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; and Seema Verma, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, also attended.

The event was held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, where doctors from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center administered the vaccine.

President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is scheduled to receive an injection on camera next week.

Notably absent from any planned public proceedings is President Trump, who has said relatively little about the vaccine and has made it clear that he is not scheduled to take it himself.

On Friday morning, Trump was not promoting Pence’s event, which his aides had asked all television networks to carry live.

“The Russia Hoax becomes an even bigger lie!” the President tweeted about a minute before Pence’s event began.