U.S. President Joe Biden said Friday he plans to request more money from Congress to develop a fresh coronavirus vaccine, adding he may require everyone to take it whether they have been previously vaccinated or not.
“I signed off this morning on a proposal we have to present to the Congress, a request for additional funding for a new vaccine that is necessary, that works,” Biden, who is vacationing in the Lake Tahoe area, told reporters.
He added it’s “tentatively” recommended “that everybody get it,” once the new shots are ready and out of the lab.
A $40 million funding request to Congress from the White House on Aug. 11 did not mention coronavirus money, but included taxpayer funds for Ukraine.
In 2022, the Biden administration requested $9.25 billion to fight the virus, but congressional lawmakers refused the request, FOX News reports.
The Associated Press said officials are expecting an updated coronavirus vaccine containing one version of the omicron strain called XBB.1.5.
The new vaccine is a change from today’s combination shots, which mix the original coronavirus strain with last year’s most common omicron variants.
Next month, people can expect to be urged to receive a fresh coronavirus shot, as Pfizer, Moderna and Novavax are working on doses of the XBB update, as Breitbart News reported.
The new booster program would come nearly a year after Biden declared the coronavirus pandemic “over” in September 2022, though he said, “We’re still doing a lot of work on it.”
File/U.S. President Joe Biden receives a third dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the South Court Auditorium in the White House September 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Biden first urged Americans last year to get coronavirus vaccine boosters, recommending one additional annual booster shot.
“If you’re fully vaccinated, get one more COVID shot. Once a year. That’s it,” Biden said during a speech on his imitation White House video set.
The president got his fifth coronavirus shot live on camera, even though he contracted and recovered from the virus the July before.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.