President Biden reassures Americans not to panic over Omicron variant
President Joe Biden called Omicron, a new variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, a cause for concern, not panic.
In a speech at the White House on November 29, President Biden acknowledged that the US will have confirmed cases of the Omicron variant sooner or later. President Biden urged Americans to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and get booster shots to prevent the risk of contracting the new Omicron variant.
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| Mr. Biden speaks at the White House on November 29. Source: CNN |
“This variant is a cause for concern, not a cause for panic. We have the best vaccines in the world, the best drugs, the best scientists, and every day we learn more. We will fight this variant quickly with actions based on knowledge and science, not chaos and panic,” Biden stressed.
President Biden met with his medical advisers on November 29 to discuss the Omicron variant. According to President Biden, his administration is in contact with US pharmaceutical companies including Johnson & Johnson to prepare contingency plans to increase vaccines if necessary to respond to the Omicron variant.
President Biden stressed that he will also direct the US Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to move as quickly as possible to approve these vaccines if necessary.
The World Health Organization identified Omicron as a variant of concern late last week, and many health experts say more information about the variant, including how contagious it is and how effective current vaccines are against it, will be available in the coming weeks.
Omicron was first detected in South Africa and has now appeared in North America, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and the Asia-Pacific region. A number of countries have imposed travel restrictions on countries in southern Africa to limit the spread of this variant./.
