Biden Calls on Americans as Young as 5 to Get ‘COVID Vaccine Once a Year’

President Joe Biden gives remarks on the status of COVID-19 in the United States from the South Court Auditorium at the White House campus in Washington on Oct. 25, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

President Joe Biden called on Americans five years and up to get a dose of an “updated” COVID-19 booster, recommending the vaccine “once a year” as he received a dose of the newly authorized shot on Tuesday.

“For Americans over five years of age who are fully vaccinated, our nation’s health experts recommend that they get the updated COVID vaccine once a year,” Biden told a press conference in Washington.

“And if you’re fully vaccinated, get one more COVID shot. Once a year—that’s it,” he added. “Now, some high-risk people, such as the elderly and immunocompromised, may need more than one COVID shot. But for most Americans, one COVID shot each year will be all they need.”

Biden made the remark after he received a dose of a bivalent booster, which targets the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5.

No clinical data is available from trials for the newly-authorized boosters, which are made by Pfizer and Moderna. Researchers who compared the updated boosters with the old boosters found they produced similar antibody levels.

That didn’t stop Biden, however, from suggesting the updated shots will prevent severe illness and death, claiming the boosters offer “maximum protection.”

“If you get it, you’re protected. And if you don’t, you’re putting yourself and other people at unnecessary risk,” Biden said, arguing that people who were previously diagnosed with COVID-19 aren’t fully protected either and should still get vaccinated.

“Here’s the bottom line: Virtually every COVID death in America is preventable—virtually every one,” Biden said, claiming 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 when they got sick.”

The White House didn’t respond to a request for evidence to support the president’s claim that getting the updated boosters could prevent “virtually every COVID death” in the United States.

President Joe Biden receives the latest Covid-19 booster shot in the South Court Auditorium of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, next to the White House, in Washington on Oct. 25, 2022. Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images

Biden got his fifth shot live on camera on Oct. 25 despite being diagnosed and recovering from an Omicron subvariant in July.

Recovery from COVID-19 bestows protection that is superior to the protection from vaccination, numerous studies have shown.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 response coordinator, meanwhile, wasn’t as certain about the vaccine’s protection as the president touted on Tuesday.

“Our vaccines … should provide the best protection possible about sickness and against serious illness this winter,” he said during a separate briefing.

Biden’s injection came several hours after the administration announced it would be launching a new advertisement campaign and undertaking other efforts to try to get more Americans boosted, as uptake hasn’t yet hit 10 percent after the new shots were authorized in late August.

National Emergency

Biden declared the COVID-19 pandemic “over” on Sept. 18, but his administration still extended the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) in mid-October.

After receiving a shot, Biden was also asked whether COVID-19 is still a “national emergency.”

“We have to make sure it doesn’t become one,” Biden replied.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, meanwhile, refused to say during a daily press briefing on Tuesday when the national emergency for COVID-19 will expire.

“So, here’s the thing, we cannot forget that COVID is still a problem … and we want the American people to know that there’s a new vaccine out there and they need to get that shot in the arm,” Jean-Pierre said when asked by a reporter what the U.S. criteria are for officials to stop declaring COVID-19 a national emergency.

Generally, a PHE lasts for 90 days and must be renewed to continue. The PHE for COVID-19 has been renewed multiple times, most recently in mid-October. It is scheduled to expire in mid-January.

Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.

From NTD News