UPDATE: During the event at the White House, Biden argued 97 percent of the population must be vaccinated for Wuhan coronavirus.
REPORTER: "How many Americans need to be vaccinated for us to get back to normal?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 27, 2021
BIDEN: "97%, 98%. I think we'll get awful close. But I'm not the scientist. I think one thing is for certain. A quarter of the country can't go unvaccinated and us not continue to have a problem." pic.twitter.com/oT0zRXxpJo
***Original post***
President Joe Biden announced Monday morning in a video message that he plans to get a booster shot for the Wuhan coronavirus vaccine.
I’ll be getting my COVID-19 booster shot — and I encourage everyone who’s eligible to get theirs as well. pic.twitter.com/l6Gmo0G8OO
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 27, 2021
The announcement comes after CDC Director Rochelle Walensky took the unusual step of overruling an FDA decision last week not to move forward with booster shots for frontline workers.
"The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday overruled a recommendation by an agency advisory panel that had refused to endorse booster shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid vaccine for frontline workers. It was a highly unusual move for the director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, but aligned C.D.C. policy with the Food and Drug Administration's endorsements over her own agency’s advisers," the New York Times reported. "The C.D.C.'s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices on Thursday recommended the boosters for a wide range of Americans, including tens of millions of older adults and younger people at high risk for the disease. But they excluded health care workers, teachers and others whose jobs put them at risk. That put their recommendations at odds with the F.D.A.'s authorization of booster shots for all adults with a high occupational risk."
Two leading FDA officials recently resigned over the CDC's push to approve booster shots before enough data was available for an official recommendation.
Over the weekend, Walensky was pressed on whether Americans will be forced to take a Wuhan coronavirus booster every year.
.@margbrennan: Should we all be prepared that we all will need to go get boosters every single year?@CDCDirector Dr. Walensky: “Your question is an important one, and it is one we don't necessarily have the answer for yet. We are working to stay ahead of the virus.” pic.twitter.com/AANCR0BWU8
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) September 26, 2021