President Biden on Tuesday received his updated COVID-19 vaccination shot on camera, using the moment to call on members of the public to get their bivalent COVID-19 booster shots ahead of the winter months.
“The truth is not enough people are getting it. We’ve got to change that so we all can have a safe and healthy holiday season,” Biden said in remarks at the White House.
“As a country … we have a choice to make. Can we repeat what happened in the past winter, more infections, more hospitals, more loved ones getting sick, even dying from the virus, or can we have a much better winter?” he added.
Biden then received his dose of the bivalent omicron-specific shot, which comes almost three months exactly after he tested positive for COVID-19 for the first time.
Biden was joined for his shot by White House chief medical adviser Anthony Fauci, COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha and Surgeon General Vivek Murthy as well as representatives from health care retailers such as Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid.
The president encouraged Americans to use Paxlovid if they have COVID-19 and to get tested if they think they have COVID-19. He mentioned the federal program to provide free tests to Americans is paused because Congress didn’t allocate new funding for it.
He called on Congress to provide more COVID-19 funding, saying, “Some members of Congress say they want to move beyond COVID but they don’t want to spend the money to do it.”
Additionally, Biden said that most Americans should get a COVID-19 shot once a year.
“In other words, it’s just like the flu shot,” he said. “For most Americans, one COVID shot each year will be all that they need.”