Remarks by President Biden in Meeting with Members of the White House COVID-⁠19 Response Team on the Omicron Variant

State Dining Room

4:57 P.M. EST
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Hello, folks. 

I’m about to get a briefing from my COVID team on Omicron variant.  And we got some encouraging news from Pfizer yesterday.  Preliminary lab data has indicated — it shows that — that three doses of the Pfizer vaccine protects avents [sic] — protects against the Omicron variant.

And today, we’ve got even more good news from the FDA and the CDC: 16- and 17-year-olds are eligible for boosters.

So, my message is really very straightforward and simple.  If you got vaccinated six months ago — and I say to all of you in the press as well, not a joke — I say to all of you: If you got vaccinated six months ago, get your booster right away.

We’re seeing a lot more Americans do just that.  Fifty million — fifty million people are — now have gotten their booster shots.  And we’re getting people their booster shots at a record pace — roughly a million people a day.

And America is making progress: 200 million with two shots, and more kids vaccinated than any country on Earth.

And we got — we got a lot of work to do, but we’re going to get — we’re going to get through this.  We’re going to make it through this.  And we’re going to be okay, in my view.

And I’m about to get a briefing from my COVID team, as I said.  So, thanks.  And I’m going to get the meeting started now. 
 
Thank you.

4:58 P.M. EST