President Biden continued to urge all eligible Americans to get their booster shot during his address from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he outlined his administration’s Covid-19 response plan.
“We are expanding our national booster campaign to make booster shots available to all eligible adults. Our docs and scientists believe those injected. additional protection than ever before from Covid-19,” Biden said.
Biden said he would provide “paid time to federal employees,” repeat injectors.
“They don’t get paid. I’m asking other private sector employers to do the same. Now, I don’t want you to have to choose between pay and getting an extra protection for a booster shot,” Biden said.
Like the fate of the administration’s vaccine requests languishing in the courts, Biden pointed out that today’s announcements will “not expand or add to those mandates,” calling it “a plan that all Americans can, hopefully, rally around, and it should – and should have bipartisan support, in my humble opinion. It should unite us, not further divide us.”
Biden acknowledged the potential threat of the Omicron variant, of which is still little known, telling Americans, “I want to reiterate that, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Collins believe that if you are concerned about the variant, Dr. Omicron, the best thing to do is to fully vaccinate and then get a booster shot when eligible.”
Biden also said the administration is preparing contingency plans for a vaccine.
“We don’t believe additional measures will be needed yet, but to prepare us if needed, my team has been working with officials at Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans. for other vaccines or boosters, and I would also direct the FDA and CDC to use the fastest process available without sacrificing safety to renew such vaccines – see review and renew, review and approve as necessary. ”
Biden outlines steps his administration announced earlier today to expand testing, increase vaccine access, restrict travel and increase responsiveness, highlight travel restrictions from South and South Africa and praise South Africa for quickly identifying the variant Omicron.
