The 78-year-old president was immunized with a booster dose in accordance with current health guidelines in the United States

United States President Joe Biden received his third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine on Monday, the White House announced.

The 78-year-old Biden received “a Covid-19 booster shot” in accordance with US health guidelines . The president also spoke about the fight against the pandemic at 13 (local time, 17 GMT).

“ The FDA and CDC reviewed all the information and determined that a third dose of the Pfizer vaccine is safe and effective. Last week they detailed who should get these booster doses for now . I know I do not look like it but I am over 65 years old and that is why I will receive it ”, he joked during a message to the population minutes before applying the vaccine.

“The most important thing we have to do is vaccinate more people,” he said, adding that he had no side effects after his first or second injection.

And he finished: “Please do the right thing. Please get your shots. It could save their lives. “

The president received his first dose on December 21 and the second three weeks later, on January 11 , along with his wife, Jill Biden, days before taking office after expiring in November. It was unclear if the first lady would also receive the booster dose on Monday.

On Friday, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration authorized the Pfizer booster, Biden told reporters: “I will get the booster shot. It is difficult to recognize that I am over 65 years old, but I will get the booster shot ”. “

Vice President Kamala Harris, 56, received the Moderna vaccine, for which federal regulators have not yet authorized boosters, but are expected to do so in the coming weeks.

Biden has become an advocate for booster doses this summer, when the United States saw a sharp rise in cases of the more transmissible delta variant coronavirus. Although the vast majority of cases continue to occur among unvaccinated people, regulators pointed to tests from Israel and early studies in the United States showing that protection against so-called advanced cases was vastly improved with a third dose of Pfizer’s vaccine.

However, aggressive pressure from the United States for reinforcements, before many poorer countries have been able to provide even a modicum of protection to their most vulnerable populations, has drawn the ire of the World Health Organization and some aid groups, who have called on the United States to suspend the third injections to free up supplies for the global vaccination effort.

Biden said last week that the United States was buying another 500 million doses of the vaccine from Pfizer – for a total of 1 billion over the next year – to donate to less-favored nations.

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