WASHINGTON (AP) – President Joe Biden, 78, and Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, 79, received their doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on Monday, urging Americans of any political preference. to be inoculated or given boosters when appropriate.
The doses, applied hours apart to both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, were administered on the first business day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration. Drugs (FDA) recommended a third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine for all Americans 65 and older, and approved it for people with pre-existing health problems or workers in high-risk environments.
Both officials noted that while the booster provides longer protection against the virus, it is not a magic bullet to end the pandemic.
“The boosters are important, but the most important thing we need to do is vaccinate more people,” Biden said.
Almost 25% of Americans age 12 and older have not received a single dose of the vaccine. They are the worst hit sector in the prolonged spike in infections and deaths caused by the highly contagious delta variant of a virus that has killed 688,000 in the United States since the pandemic began.
“As I’ve been saying for months, these safe and effective vaccines are the way to defend ourselves and our families from this terrible virus,” said McConnell, a polio survivor.
Biden received his first dose on December 21 and the second dose three weeks later, on January 11, along with his wife, Jill Biden. The 70-year-old first lady received her booster dose of Pfizer at the White House on Monday afternoon, said her spokesman, Michael LaRosa.
“I know I do not see myself of that age, but I am over 65 years old, many more,” joked the president. “And that is why today they will administer my booster dose.”
Biden has been promoting booster doses since the summer, when the United States saw a sharp spike in coronavirus infections driven by the delta variant. While most cases continue to occur in unvaccinated people, regulators pointed to evidence from Israel and studies in the United States showing that protection against cases among vaccinated people was markedly improved with a third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine. .
But the intense campaign by the United States to apply booster doses, before many poor nations are able to administer even a modicum of protection to their most vulnerable populations, has sparked outrage from the World Health Organization and some groups. humanitarian aid workers, who have asked the country to pause its third-dose campaign to release supplies that can be used in global vaccination efforts.
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