WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass billions of dollars in additional funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, as he received a second booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine a day after federal regulators approved a fourth shot for those aged 50 and older.
Biden spoke as his administration rolled out COVID.gov, designed to be a one-stop website to help people in the United States access COVID-19 tests, vaccines and treatments, along with status updates on infection rates where they live. Biden pressed lawmakers to provide additional funding “immediately” to ensure continued supply of the tools that have helped the nation begin to emerge from the pandemic.
“Congress, we need to secure additional supply now,” he said, warning of shortages of vaccines, tests and treatments. “This isn’t partisan, it’s medicine.”
Biden, 79, received the first series of two doses of the coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office and a first booster shot in September. The additional booster dose was administered by a member of the White House Medical Unit.
“It didn’t hurt a bit,” Biden said.
The additional booster is meant to beef up the body’s protection against COVID-19 in populations most vulnerable to the coronavirus, which has killed more than 975,000 people in the U.S.
On Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cleared the way for another shot for anyone 50 and older, who can get the additional booster at least four months after their last vaccination. Severely immune-compromised patients, such as organ transplant recipients, as young as 12, are also eligible.
“We have enough supply to give booster shots, but if Congress fails to act we won’t have the supplies we need this Fall,” Biden warned, noting the possibility that regulators will approve a fourth shot for all Americans.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, have been negotiating in hopes of reviving the COVID-19 package.
If an agreement emerges, participants say they expect it to be similar to the $15.6 billion bipartisan version that congressional leaders crafted earlier this month. The original compromise collapsed after rank-and-file Democrats rebelled against cuts in unspent pandemic aid for states that would have helped pay for it.
The two parties’ continuing disagreements are over how to find savings to offset the measure’s cost, not the new spending itself.
Leaders would like Congress to approve the assistance before lawmakers leave for a spring recess after next week.
“We are not yet at the finish line, but we will keep working throughout the day,” Schumer said Wednesday. He said if a new COVID variant emerges that “extends its nasty tentacles across the country and we don’t have the tools to respond, then woe is us.”
Romney said Tuesday that bargainers were discussing savings options. “But we’re making progress and hopefully we’ll get there soon,” he said.
A subvariant of the highly transmissible omicron that scientists call BA.2 is now the dominant coronavirus mutant in the United States. It accounted for nearly 55% of new infections across the nation last week and an even greater proportion in the Northeast, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Scientists say one reason BA.2 has gained ground is that it’s about 30% more contagious than the original omicron. In rare cases, research shows it can sicken people even if they’ve already had an omicron infection. But it doesn’t seem to cause more severe disease than the original, and vaccines appear just as effective against it.
The unvaccinated, though, are at a far greater risk.
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AP writers Darlene Superville and Alan Fram in Washington and Laura Ungar in Louisville contributed.
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This content is published through a licensing agreement with Acquire Media using its NewsEdge technology.
What he really needs is a lethal injection, and he’s not the only one.
AND since we never saw the actual VIAL of what every it was he got jabbed with, FOR ALL WE KNOW it was saline..
I think he meant more COVID fun—as in government control with mandates and the like.
The Treasonous Democrat party is going to try to extend this COVID as long as they can and milk every dollar out of the taxpayer. I wouldn’t even be surprised if the tried to pull their corrupt mail in voting Con again in November.
“These people (Democrats) not only roam the streets freely, they now hold public positions from which they hurl blanket condemnations against anyone who dares confront their lunatic professions and policies.
The Lockdown ruse worked. Official edicts from state and federal offices have become a total mockery to the Constitution and the Rule of Law. And with each passing day, these abuses of power stray further and further from any “public health” related issue. That development was totally by design.
In truth, leftist Democrats had long sought an excuse to open their floodgates of power-grubbing corruption, to seize control over our Nation, never to relinquish it. “ 🙁 🙁 🙁
As i said the DAY he got into office, the left will MILK COVID as long as WE let them…
he did not get a booster shot.
he may have got a placebo or a vitamin shot.
but no booster.
Joe, they lied to you. It is NOT a true vaccine!
IT never was.. BUT the worst part of that, is how if anyone SAYS that in certain areas on line.. YOU GET censured for ‘spreading misinformation’..