President Joe Biden received his COVID-19 booster shot on Monday, days after regulators recommended a third dose of the Pfizer injection for adults 65 and older, people with pre-existing medical conditions, and high-intensity work environments. risk.
“The most important thing is to vaccinate more people,” said the president before receiving the injection, adding that he had no side effects with the first two doses.
Biden, 78, received his first injection on December 21 and his second on January 11, along with his wife, Jill Biden, who is 70 years old. She will also receive the booster dose, but on Monday she was at Northern Virginia Community College, where she teaches English.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized boosters for the Pfizer vaccine last week.
The president is in favor of reinforcing vaccines because the United States is having a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, although the vast majority of infections have occurred in unvaccinated people.
But this aggressive campaign has drawn the ire of the World Health Organization and some aid groups, who have called on the United States for a moratorium on vaccines to give priority to poor nations that have failed to deliver even the first dose of their population.
Biden announced last week that the United States will donate one billion Pfizer vaccines to the least-favored nations over the next year.
Vice President Kamala Harris, 56, received the vaccine from Moderna, for which regulators have not yet authorized boosters, but are expected to do so in the coming weeks. Regulators are also expecting data soon on the effectiveness of a Johnson & Johnson injection booster, which is a single shot.
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