Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Monday recommended that all people ages 18 and older should get a COVID-19 booster shot due to the emergence of the Omicron variant.
Walensky said individuals who received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines should wait six months after their initial two-shot series. Johnson & Johnson vaccine recipients should wait months after the shot.
“The recent emergence of the Omicron variant further emphasizes the importance of vaccination, boosters, and prevention efforts needed to protect against COVID-19,” Walensky said in a statement. “Early data from South Africa suggest increased transmissibility of the Omicron variant, and scientists in the United States and around the world are urgently examining vaccine effectiveness related to this variant.”
For those who are not vaccinated, Walensky strongly encouraged them to get any one of the shots available to not only protect themselves but their children and families.
“I also want to encourage people to get a COVID-19 test if they are sick,” Walensky said. “Increased testing will help us identify Omicron quickly.”
Also on Monday, the World Health Organization said the new variant could lead to surges with “severe consequences.”
The United Nation’s health agency flagged “considerable uncertainties” regarding the new COVID variant that was first detected in South Africa, according to the Associated Press
President Joe Biden on Monday described the new omicron COVID variant as a “cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
“Sooner or later we’re going to see cases of this new variant in the United States. We’re going to have to face it,” Biden told reporters in the White House, just hours after Canadian officials reported the first case detected in North America. Biden added that his administration would continue research into the variant’s severity and ability to spread, and that his moves would be guided by science and speed, but “not chaos and confusion.”
Cases tied to the new variant have been reported in the United Kingdom, Germany, Hong Kong, Australia and the Netherlands after the World Health Organization on Friday designated omicron a “variant of concern.”
U.S. officials over the weekend sounded alarms that the variant features several troublesome mutations that may suggest rapid transmission, and WHO said early evidence shows signs of higher chances of reinfection among those who’ve previously tested positive for COVID.
Several nations, including the United States, have implemented travel restrictions for a handful of countries in southern Africa where omicron was first detected.
“The best protection against this new variant, or any variants out there ... is getting fully vaccinated and getting a booster shot,” Biden said. “If you are vaccinated but still worried about the new variant, get your booster. If you aren’t vaccinated, go get that first shot.”
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