Speaking Monday at the
When omicron arrives, and it will, Biden said, America will “face this new threat just as we’ve faced those that have come before it.”
He appealed to the roughly 80 million unvaccinated Americans aged 5 and up to get their shots, and for the rest of the country to seek out booster shots six months after their second dose. He also encouraged everyone to get back to wearing face masks in all indoor public settings — a pandemic precaution that has fallen out of use across much of the country.
Separately, the
“Everyone ages 18 and older should get a booster shot either when they are six months after their initial
Biden was joined by Dr.
“We really don’t know," Fauci told ABC’s “Good Morning America,” calling speculation premature.
The new variant poses the latest test to Biden's efforts to contain the pandemic, mitigate its impacts on the economy and return a sense of normalcy to the
“This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,” Biden said, as
Biden last week moved to restrict travel from
As omicron spreads across the globe,
Some other nations are reinstating severe travel and business lockdowns to prevent the omicron variant from spreading, but Biden indicated the
“If people are vaccinated and wear their mask, there’s no need for lockdowns,” he said.
Fauci said earlier on “CBS Mornings” that limiting travel from the countries where omicron was first identified “buys you a couple of weeks because if you can keep things out in force for a couple of weeks you can do a lot of things.”
Pharmaceutical companies are already adjusting their existing COVID-19 vaccines to better attack the omicron variant, but Fauci said Americans should make it a priority to get either their first shots or a booster dose now, rather than waiting for a new formulation.
“I would strongly suggest you get boosted now," he said.
He added that depending on what scientists learn about the omicron variant in the coming weeks “we may not need” targeted boosters to contain that strain of the virus.
Biden said his administration was “sparing no effort at removing all roadblocks to keep the American people safe," including working with drug manufacturers on potential new boosters and testing targeted specifically at the new variant.
Any omicron-specific vaccine probably could not begin to be produced for another two or three months, so getting boosters now is a “very important initial line of defense,” Dr.
Burton said
“If we need to manufacture an omicron-specific variant, it’s going to take some weeks, two to three months is probably what we’re looking at to be able to really begin to manufacture,” Burton told
Noting that the new variant, like earlier ones, sprang up overseas in areas with lower vaccination rates, Biden said it was both a moral imperative and in America's self-interest to speed up global vaccinations. He noted that the
“Now we need the rest of the world to step up as well," Biden said. “We can’t let up until the world is vaccinated.”
As the holiday season got underway, Biden tried to reassure shoppers that his administration was working to ease supply chain problems. Businesses are working to overcome lingering effects of COVID-related shutdowns and now issues arising from the strong recovery that has generated more demand than many ports, manufacturers and retailers can handle.
The president spoke Monday with the CEOs of Best Buy, Food Lion, Samsung, Etsy and Walmart, among companies. The corporate leaders reassured Biden.
“While we’re all concerned about the supply chain, we have more inventory than we did a year ago, and we have the inventory that we need to be able to support the business,” said Walmart CEO
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