President Joe Biden received the latest COVID-19 booster shot on Tuesday and urged people to do the same ahead of a busy holiday season.
“We have a choice to make,” Biden said. “We repeat what happened in the past winters, more infections, more hospitalizations, or loved ones getting sick, even dying from the virus, or can we have a much better winter.”
Biden said “not enough” people are getting the new bivalent shot, which he said is widely available and free. The president said that “for most Americans,” a COVID-19 shot “once a year is going to be required” but did not clarify under what circumstances. “It’s the most important thing you can do,” he added.
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“Virtually every COVID death in America is preventable,” the president continued, adding that “almost everyone who will die from COVID this year will not be up to date on their shots, or they will not have taken Paxlovid,” an antiviral.
Asked whether the coronavirus was a national emergency, Biden said that dealing with the virus remains “a necessity … to make sure it doesn’t become one.”
The updated vaccine, which the U.S. began rolling out in September, targets new coronavirus variants.
Some 4.5 million Americans received the booster shot last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Biden’s handling of the virus has come under fire from Republicans in the countdown to the midterm elections, with Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel criticizing the White House’s failure to end COVID-19’s spread.
The president “promised to ‘shut down the virus,’ but instead, Biden and Democrats pitted Americans against each other, and forced families to decide between their livelihoods and the left’s political agenda,” McDaniel said in a statement Tuesday. “Voters won’t forget how Democrats closed schools, shut down businesses, and forced mandates on families.”
On Tuesday, Biden blamed Republicans for halting COVID-19 funding in Congress.
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“We have to keep up the fight together,” Biden said, directing his comments at “friends in Congress” who say “there’s really no reason that the government should be paying for it.”
Biden tested positive for COVID-19 in July, complaining of a sore throat, runny nose, cough, body aches, and fatigue. The president was treated with Paxlovid and tested negative before coming down with a rebound diagnosis.
