Biden receives 2nd Covid-19 booster on camera
Washington, Mar 30 (EFE).- President Joe Biden received a second booster of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in front of cameras Wednesday a day after regulators in the United States authorized a fourth dose for people over the age of 50.
After delivering remarks on the pandemic, the 79-year-old president sat down in a chair next to the podium and rolled up his left sleeve so a member of the White House Medical Unit could administer the vaccine.
“Didn’t hurt a bit,” Biden said after getting the shot.
On Tuesday, the US Food and Drug Administration approved a second booster dose of either the Pfizer/BioNTech or the Moderna Covid-19 vaccines for older people and certain immunocompromised individuals.
Yet only 44.8 percent of the 65.5 percent US adults who qualify as fully vaccinated – two doses – have gotten a booster, and the president addressed those people in his comments Wednesday.
“If you haven’t gotten your first booster, please don’t wait. Do it today,” said Biden, who had the first booster on Sept. 27, 2021.
The Democratic president likewise urged Congress to act quickly and appropriate more money to deal with the pandemic after a $15.6 billion bipartisan bill failed earlier this month due to differences over how to pay for it.
The Senate majority leader, New York Democrat Chuck Schumer, and Utah Republican Sen. Sen. Mitt Romney are trying to find consensus on a substitute bill that can be passed before Congress begins its spring recess in mid-April.
“Congress, we need to secure additional supply now,” Biden said, referring to stocks of vaccines, tests, and treatments. “This isn’t partisan, it’s medicine.”
“We have enough supply to give booster shots, but if Congress fails to act we won’t have the supplies we need this Fall,” he said. “Even worse, if we need a different vaccine for the future to combat a new variant, we’re not going to have enough money to purchase it. We cannot allow that to happen.”
No nation has been hit harder by the pandemic than the US, where Covid-19 has claimed 944,000 lives and infected 80 million people in all, according to the tallies maintained by Johns Hopkins University. EFE
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