Yearly COVID booster 'is going to be required,' Biden says while getting vaccine

President Joe Biden received the latest COVID-19 booster shot on Tuesday and urged people to do the same ahead of a busy holiday season.

“We have a choice to make,” Biden said. “We repeat what happened in the past winters, more infections, more hospitalizations, or loved ones getting sick, even dying from the virus, or can we have a much better winter.”

Biden said “not enough” people are getting the new bivalent shot, which he said is widely available and free. The president said that “for most Americans,” a COVID-19 shot “once a year is going to be required” but did not clarify under what circumstances. “It's the most important thing you can do,” he added.

“Virtually every COVID death in America is preventable,” the president continued, adding that “almost everyone who will die from COVID this year will not be up to date on their shots, or they will not have taken Paxlovid,” an antiviral.

Asked whether the coronavirus was a national emergency, Biden said that dealing with the virus remains “a necessity ... to make sure it doesn’t become one.”