President Joe Biden on Monday warned Americans they may need another shot to protect them from the Omicron variant of COVID-19 as he outlined the measures his administration was taking to respond to the latest threat.
With scientists already beginning research on whether new vaccines will be needed, Biden also urged the unvaccinated to get their shots.
'We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed,' he said at the White House.
'But so that we are prepared if needed, my team is already working with officials at Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson to develop contingency plans for vaccines or boosters if needed.'
And he said he was directing regulators to push as fast as possible - without cutting corners - to approve rapidly any new vaccines.
He repeated the point in an evening tweet.
'In the event — hopefully unlikely — that updated vaccinations or boosters are needed to respond to Omicron, we will accelerate their development and deployment with every available tool,' he said.
'I am sparing no effort and removing all roadblocks to keep the American people safe.'
President Joe Biden said his administration had already begun working with pharmaceutical companies to lay the groundwork in case a new generation of vaccines was needed to cope with the emerging Omicron variant of COVID-19
Biden reiterated his message in a series of tweets, saying he hoped updated vaccinations or boosters would not be necessary as leaders around the world scrambled to react to Omicron
The new variant has around 50 mutations and more than 30 of them are on the spike protein. The current crop of vaccines trigger the body to recognize the version of the spike protein from older versions of the virus. But the mutations may make the spike protein look so different that the body's immune system struggles to recognise it and fight it off
Almost 70 percent of the U.S. population has now had one dose of the vaccine or more, but that still leaves millions unprotected across the country
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned the new variant poses a 'severe' risk to the world's pandemic recovery and the odds of it being infectious enough to spread quickly are 'very high.'
Omicron, which was first identified in South Africa but is thought to have originated in Botswana, is the most-mutated form of the coronavirus yet found.
Biden returned from his Thanksgiving break on Sunday to be met by his scientific advisers as they planned their response.
But in his speech, he insisted that the infectious new variant was not a cause for panic and said no new restrictions were needed.
'We'll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion,' he said.
Even amid the pressing nature of the new variant, Biden managed to misstate its name.
'It's called the Omnicron,' he said, inserting an extra 'n' – an error his coronavirus adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was standing in the background, also committed on Sunday.
Hours after the speech the CDC strengthened their guidance to recommend that all adults get a booster.
South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) said the variant was fueling a surge in coronavirus hospitalizations in hot spots within the country. Gauteng, the province where the COVID-19 variant was first detected has suffered a more than 300 percent increase in virus related hospitalizations this week.
The number of children hospitalized with COVID has also risen sharply around South African's capital city of Pretoria, though the NICD said not all are at risk of severe disease and some cases could just be out of an abundance of caution.
When Biden addressed the US on Monday he said: 'You have to get your vaccine. You have to get the shot. You have to get the booster,' Biden said, speaking to the nation from the White House Roosevelt Room, which is now features a fireplace mantle decked out with holiday decorations.
'Sooner or later we’re going to see new cases of this variant here in the United States,' Biden predicted, a day after it had been identified in Canada.
But he cautioned: 'This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic,' and said no additional measures were currently needed.
The president fielded a few questions after his remarks, where he called the new variant 'Omnicron,' adding an 'n'
Asked if lockdowns were off the table, Biden responded: 'Yes, for now … If people are vaccinated and wear their masks, there’s no need for lockdowns.'
However, Moderna's CEO Stephane Bancel told CNBC just today that he's worried the vaccines currently available may not do enough to protect people from the newly-mutated virus – the antibodies Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine generates to fight against it could be eight times lower against Omicron.
Biden asked Americans to mask when required, get vaccinated, and get boosted, and said he is 'sparing no effort.'
'We’re going to fight and beat this new variant as well,' he said.
He pleaded with the unvaccinated to 'go get that first shot.'
'The best protection against this new variant or any of the of the various ones out there ... is getting fully vaccinated,' Biden said.
'We do not yet believe that additional measures will be needed,' Biden said. But he said his team was already in touch with people from drug makers Pfzizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson 'to develop contingency plans for vaccines or boosters if needed.'
Vice President Kamala Harris and Fauci both wore masks as they stood behind the president.
'As additional protection, please wear your masks indoors in public settings around other people,' he said.
Biden was pictured shopping at Murray's Toggery Shop in Nantucket without his mask on Saturday, despite the island's mask requirement for indoor facilities.
The fully-vaccinated president was caught flaunting the health guidelines just hours after he was 'fully briefed' on the concerning new variant. The island brought back its indoor mask mandates earlier this month at a town meeting on November 18. They made the decision to return to indoor masking because scientists found a prevalence of the virus in island sewage.
On Monday Biden also praised South African officials for reporting information about the new variant, but said the travel ban the U.S. imposed was meant to 'buy time' to give more people time to get vaccinated. South African officials have fumed that the UK, the U.S. and other nations slapped the travel warning on immediately after they brought forward the new information – likely saddling the nation with economic harm.
But Biden isn't pushing new travel restrictions, after the U.S. shut down travel from seven south African nations following initial reports out of South Africa. Those restrictions took effect today.
Also on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the limited decision to restrict travel during her regular press briefing - insisting the US wasn't looking to 'punish' any other nation.
'The objective here is not to punish, it is to protect the American people,' Psaki said.
'This is not going to prevent, it is going to delay and that delay is going to help us have necessary time to do the research...to get more people vaccinated.'
During his remarks Biden also urged 'everyone' to wear a mask in indoor settings, except when eating or drinking 'or speaking in a microphone' – as he was doing without a mask.
In addition to defending the new travel ban, Biden defended the nation's effort to pump out millions of vaccines for the world – a humanitarian effort that should also stem the creation of new variants.
'We can’t let up until the world is vaccinated,' Biden said.
'We’re throwing everything we can at this virus, tracking it from every angle.'
The president also urged 'everyone' to wear a mask in indoor settings, except when eating or drinking 'or speaking in a microphone' – as he was doing without a mask during his remarks, where he was backed by Dr. Fauci and Vice President Kamala Harris – who were each masked
He said no vaccines shipped abroad 'will ever come at the expense of any American,' and pledged: 'I will always make sure our people are protected first.'
He spoke amid warnings – but also uncertainty – about whether the highly transmissible new variant could reshape or prolong the battle against the COVID-19.
Canada's health minister said the Sunday the variant had been detected there.
It was his first speech fully devoted to the coronavirus since Nov. 3rd, as he contends with a range of challenges including inflation and supply chain issues, implementing the new infrastructure law, and trying to get his social policy agenda through Congress.
His coronavirus advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, called speculation about the new variant premature in an appearance on ABC's 'Good Morning America.'
'We really don't know,' Fauci said. 'We should be concerned, and our concern should spur us to do the things that we know work,' he said.
National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told MSNBC there are important differences between South Africa, where Omicron was identified, and the U.S. – which already has seen a proliferation of the Delta variant.
'It was all on its own,' Collins said of the South African landscape, where Covid infection numbers were low, in a country considered to have advanced surveillance in place. 'We don't know what happens if omicron ends up in a place where there's already a lot of delta — would it be able to compete or not? That's one of the big questions we don't know.'
The new Covid variant Omicron could turn out to be a 'Christmas gift' if it causes milder illness, a German health expert claimed today after South African doctors said the strain appears to cause less severe symptoms.
Medics in South Africa said the strain is causing mild symptoms — such as a headache and tiredness — than previous versions of the virus and hasn't led to a single hospitalization or death.
Professor Karl Lauterbach, a clinical epidemiologist who is in the running to be Germany's next health minister, said the early reports means Omicron could be a Christmas gift and may even speed up the end of the pandemic.
He suggested that it has so many mutations — 32 on the spike protein alone, twice as many as Delta — which could mean it is optimized to infect and be less lethal, in line with how most respiratory viruses evolve.
Professor Paul Hunter, an infectious diseases expert at the University of East Anglia, said the theory 'may prove to be true' but said that high levels of previous infection and vaccination may be offering protection against the strain.
This would also be a positive sign, because it shows that the highly-mutated variant is not completely unrecognizable to the immune system of Covid survivors or vaccines.
Scientists have long-warned the coronavirus is unlikely to ever be eradicated but will instead transition into a milder cold-like virus.
However, experts warned today that they need at least two weeks to determine what impact the Omicron variant will have, due to the time it takes for someone to become seriously unwell after catching the strain.
Scientists also need at least two weeks to work out whether Omicron's worrying mutations could make it more infectious than Delta and resistant to vaccines will translate in the real world.
And most cases have so far been in younger people, who experience milder symptoms from the virus compared to older adults.
It comes as Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said Christmas plans could be put in jeopardy by the new strain, raising fears Britons could be stung with last-minute curbs like last year.
Ms Sturgeon confirmed six cases of the variant have been recorded in Scotland, some of which do not have links to abroad, suggesting Omicron is now spreading in the community.
She called for the UK — which has nine confirmed cases of the variant — to toughen up its approach by ordering all arrivals to self-isolate at home for eight days instead of two to curb the spread of the new strain. But Boris Johnson rejected the plan and said the Government will review its approach in three weeks.
Dr Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and the first person to spot the new variant in a patient, said her patients infected with Omicron reported different and much milder symptoms, including tiredness, muscle aches, a sore head and a dry cough. But none reported the tell-tale symptoms of a loss of smell or taste or breathing difficulties
Vaccine-makers Moderna and Pfizer are already working on Covid vaccines that could tackle the Omicron strain, if it poses a problem for the current crop of vaccines, and they could be ready in the first half of 2022
The new variant was first detected last week and most cases are concentrated in South Africa, where daily infections soared to 6,048 on Saturday, a 20-fold increase on the 306 positive tests registered two weeks earlier. But deaths have so far remained flat, with 20 recorded
