Remarks by President Biden on the COVID-⁠19 Response and the Vaccination Program
SEPTEMBER 24, 2021
Location: Not determined

9:57 A.M. EDT
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Good morning, everyone.  As I’ve said before, we have the tools to beat COVID — COVID-19 — if we come together as a country and use the tools we have.
 
Earlier this month, I laid out a six-part plan for the fall that does just that: One, vaccinate the unvaccinated, including with new requirements; two, keep vaccinated — keep the vaccinated protected; three, keep children safe and schools open; four, increase testing and masking; five, protect the economic — our economic recovery; and six, improve the care for people with COVID-19.  Now, we’ve made important progress on each front.
 
And this week, as planned, we took a key step in protecting the vaccinated with booster shots, which our top government doctors believe provides the highest level of protection available to date.
 
The Food and Drug Administration — the FDA — the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the CDC — they’ve completed their independent scientific review.  And based on that review, the majority of Americans who were fully vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine are now able to receive the booster shot six months after they’ve received their second shot.  Six months after you receive the second shot, you’re eligible. 
 
Those eligible include, in addition to meeting the requirement of six months after the second shot: those people that are 65 years old or older; adults 18 and over with certain underlying health conditions like diabetes and obesity; and those who are at increased risk of COVID-19 because of where they work or where they live, like healthcare workers, teachers, grocery store workers.
 
That’s over — that group makes up 60 million Americans who are now eligible for a booster six months after their second shot.  And up to 20 million who will receive their — received their earlier Pfizer shot at least six months ago are eligible today.  So, those January, February — those folks are eligible now.  Now.
 
And I’ve made clear all along: The decision of which booster shot to give, when to start the shot, and who will get them is left to the scientists and the doctors.  That’s what happened here.
 
And while we waited and prepared, we brought enough — we bought enough booster shots, and states and pharmacies, doctor’s offices, and community health centers have been preparing to get shots in arms — booster shots in arms — for a while.
 
And like your first and second shot, the booster shot is free and easily accessible.  Booster shots will be available in 80,000 locations, including over 40,000 pharmacies nationwide.
 
So, my message today is this: If you’ve got the Pfizer vaccine — if you got the Pfizer vaccine in January, February, or March of this year and you’re over 65 years of age, go get the booster.   Or if you have a medical condition like diabetes or you’re a frontline worker, like a healthcare worker or a teacher, you can get a free booster now.  I’ll be getting my booster shot.  It’s hard to acknowledge I’m over 65, but I’ll be getting my booster shot.  (Laughter.)  It’s a bear, isn’t it?  I tell you — acknowledge it.  Anyway.
 
But all kidding aside, I’ll be getting my booster shot.  I’m not sure exactly when I’m going to do it — as soon as I can get it done.  
 
Of course, millions of Americans got the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines.  My message for you is this: You still have a high degree of protection.  Our doctors and scientists are working day and night to analyze the data from those two organizations on whether and when you need a booster shot.  And we’ll provide updates for you as the process moves ahead.
 
Again, the bottom line is: If you’re fully vaccinated, you’re highly protected from severe illness even if you get COVID-19. 
 
In fact, recent data indicates there’s only one confirmed positive case per 5,000 fully vaccinated Americans per day.  You’re as safe as possible.  You’re in good shape.  And we’re doing everything we can to keep it that way, which is where the booster comes in.
 
So, let me be clear: Yes, we’ve made incredible progress in vaccinating Americans, with over 182 million people being fully vaccinated as of today.
 
But this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.  And it’s caused by the fact that, despite Americans having an unprecedented and successful vaccination program, despite the fact that for almost five months, free vaccines have been available in 80,000 locations, we still have — we still have over 70 million Americans who have failed to get a single shot.
 
And to make matters worse, there are elected officials actively working to undermine with false information the fight against COVID-19.  This is totally unacceptable.
 
The vast majority of Americans are doing the right thing.  Three quarters of the eligible have gotten at least one shot, but one quarter has not gotten any.
 
And in a country as large as ours, that’s — 25 percent minority can cause an awful lot of damage.  And they are causing a lot of damage.
 
The unvaccinated overcrowd our hospitals, overrunning emergency rooms and intensive care units, leaving no room for someone with a heart attack or a cancer operation needed to get the lifesaving care because the places where they would get that care are crowded; they are not available.
 
The unvaccinated also put our economic at — recovery at risk, causing unease in the economy around the — and causing unease around the kitchen table.  I can imagine what’s going on in the conversations this morning, and a lot of parents wondering what’s going to happen.  “What’s going to happen?”  Those who have been vaccinated — “what’s going to happen?”  Potentially slowing economic growth, costing jobs. 
 
Their refusal has cost all of us.  The refusal to get vaccinated has cost all of us.  And I’m moving forward with vaccination requirements wherever I can.  These requirements will cover two thirds of all workers in America. 
 
And I’m pleased to see more businesses and organizations instituting their own vaccination requirements.  I’ve had business leaders call me and thank me for setting the policies that would allow them to do the same thing.  They are able to do it anyway, but it gives them the ability to move forward.
 
We’re making progress.  For example, United Airlines, which required vaccines about seven weeks ago, now has 97 percent of their employees vaccinated. 
 
Just four weeks ago, the Department of Defense required vaccinations for the military, and already 92 percent — 92 percent — of our active-duty service members are vaccinated.
 
And we’re on track to administer 24 million shots in arms in September. 
 
So, please, do the right thing.  Do the right thing.  And I understand there’s a lot of misinformation you’ve been fed out there, but try to look through — get to people you trust, the people who have been vaccinated.  Ask them.  Ask them. 
 
So, get vaccinated.  But just don’t take it from me.  Listen to the voices of the unvaccinated Americans who are lying in hospital beds, taking their final breaths, saying — and, literally, we’ve seen this on television — “If only I had gotten vaccinated.  If only.  If only.”
 
They’re leaving behind husbands and wives and small children — people who adore them.  People are dying and will die who don’t have to die.  It is not hyperbole to suggest it’s literally a tragedy. 
 
Please don’t let this become your tragedy.  Get vaccinated.  It can save your liv- — your life.  It can save the lives of those around you.
 
You know, text your ZIP Code to 438829 — 438829 — or visit Vaccines.gov to find a vaccination location near you now.
 
Let me close with this: We also made so much progress during the past eight months in this pandemic, and now we face a critical moment.  We have the tools.  We have the plan.  We just have to finish the job together as one nation.  And I know we can.  I know we can.
 
God bless you all.  And please, look out for your own self-interest and health here.  Get vaccinated.  May God protect our troops.
 
Thank you.
 
ABC, Rachel Scott.
 
Q  Thank you, Mr. President.  You said on the campaign trail that you were going to restore the moral standing of the U.S., that you were going to immediately end Trump’s assault on the dignity of the immigrant communities.
 
Given what we saw at the border this week, have you failed in that promise?  And this is happening under your watch.  Do you take responsibility for the chaos that’s unfolding?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Of course I take responsibility.  I’m President.  But it was horrible what — to see, as you saw — to see people treated like they did: horses nearly running them over and people being strapped.  It’s outrageous.
 
I promise you, those people will pay.  They will be — an investigation is underway now, and there will be consequences.  There will be consequences.  It’s an embarrassment.  But beyond an embarrassment, it’s dangerous; it’s wrong.  It sends the wrong message around the world.  It sends the wrong message at home.  It’s simply not who we are.  Thank you.
 
Peter Alexander.
 
Q    Mr. President, thank you.  You came into office on a message of competence and unity.  We’ve witnessed what’s happened in the country over the course of the last several months.  We’ve seen the chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the threat of a government shutdown right now, and Democrats — members of your own party — are still divided over your agenda going forward.  So what do you say to Americans who say that you have not delivered on that promise?
 
THE PRESIDENT:  Remember, I said it’s going to take me a year to deliver everything I’m looking at here.  That’s number one.
 
Number two, take a look at what I inherited when I came into office — when I came into office, the state of affairs, and where we were: We had 4 million people vaccinated.  We had no plan.  We had — I mean, I can go down the list. 
 
So, you know, part of it is dealing with the panoply of things that were landed on my plate.  I’m not complaining; it’s just a reality.  It’s a reality, number one.
 
Number two, I think a part of what has to happen here as well — for example, let’s talk about my economic plan.  The economic plan — and you all are always — and understandably, legitimately — citing polls.  Every element of my economic plan is overwhelmingly popular — overwhelmingly popular.
 
But the problem is, with everything happening, not everybody knows what’s in that plan.  For example, all those women out there who are not able to go back to work because they have a — a dependent grandparent or a parent, or they have a dependent child who needs help, or they can’t find daycare, or they can’t find affor- — I mean, look at what’s happening.
 
Well, there’s a solution.  There’s a solution in the proposal that I put forward.  And the plans we’re now debating in the United St- — among ourselves and they’re debating in Congress as — is a plan — the essence of the plan that I laid out at the beginning.
 
And so, I’m confident that, at the end of the day, we’re going to be able to get that done.
 
Second point I’d like to make: We talk about price tags.  The — it is zero price tag on the debt.  We’re paying — we’re going to pay for everything we spend.  So they say it’s not — you know, people, understandably — “Well, you know, it started off at $6 trillion, now it’s $3.5 trillion.  Now it’s — is it going to be $2.9?  Is it…”
 
It’s going to be zero — zero.  Because in the — in that plan that I put forward — and I said from the outset — I said, “I’m running to change the dynamic of how the economy grows.” 
 
I’m tired of trickle-down.  The trillionaires and billionaires are doing very, very well — you all know it; you’ve all reported it — and in the middle of this crisis.  But hardworking people and middle-class people are getting hurt. 
 
And so, I provide for, for example, a tax cut.  If you have a child, you get a refundable tax credit.  It’s reduced hunger in America by 40 percent, literally, for children.  You have the — the whole notion of being able to provide for daycare for your children, getting people back to school, et cetera.  It’s all paid for. It’s all paid for. 
 
But — and a lot of these are flat tax cuts that exist within my proposal, and they’re being calculated as if the cost of — of the — of the Child Care Tax Credit is a cost to the government; it’s not.  It’s reducing taxes — reducing taxes, not increasing taxes.  
 
Now, part of the problem is I had hoped — I hadn’t planned on, although I kind of anticipated it might happen — I hadn’t planned on the 178-mile top winds hurricanes going into Louisiana and 20 inches of rain in New York and New Jersey, and — and an area as big as the state of New Jersey burning down in the West. 
 
And so, what I had hoped I would be doing, I do what I did in the campaign: I’d be out making the case about what my plan proposal contained.  And it’s been very much curtailed by a whole range of things.
 
And so, I think that it’s understandable — I think it’s understandable — people being frustrated.  I think they’re frustrated as well by the fact that — not just members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans — frustrated by, you know, “I thought this was going to be better.  I thought everything was working out.”  We were — we were moving along on — on COVID-19, and now we have all these people who refuse to get a shot.  And now look at the people dying — large numbers of people dying.