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The Biden administration on Tuesday encouraged all Americans to get an updated COVID vaccination as soon as possible, even if that means getting it on the same day as their annual flu shot.
Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator, said: “I really believe this is why God gave us two arms, one for the flu shot and one for the COVID shot.”
Jha spoke with other members of the administration’s COVID-19 response team, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, Biden’s chief medical adviser. Jha said the Food and Drug Administration has just approved a new vaccine for Americans over the age of 12. This vaccine is designed to combat the Omicron variant that is currently prevalent worldwide.
“For the first time since December 2020, these vaccines, our vaccines, have caught up with the virus,” Jha said. He added that the administration has been working over the past few days to distribute the new vaccine across the country.
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Fauci said most Americans could get an annual COVID vaccine, away from the sporadic shots and boosters recommended early in the pandemic, unless a new, invisible variant emerges. I said it should. However, Fauci said some “particularly vulnerable groups” of Americans may still need “more frequent vaccinations against COVID-19.”
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Jha acknowledged that it was “not always very simple” for people to understand the vaccine requirements, but said the new vaccine should make life easier for most people.
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“So banning new variants of curveballs — we’ve seen curveballs — but by banning those variants for the vast majority of Americans, we’re making sure we’re doing one each year. One COVID shot is a serious year-round illness,” Jah said. “It’s an important milestone.”
Dr Jah said the only exceptions to the government’s recommendation for immediate vaccination are people who have recently been infected or have been vaccinated recently. He said it was “reasonable” for those people to wait several months before receiving new injections.