Fauci calls for more to get updated boosters in US

Anthony Fauci, the White House's top medical adviser, on Tuesday urged people to get vaccinated as soon as possible, as recent data show updated COVID-19 boosters added up to 56 percent protection against symptomatic infection.

"Please, for your own safety and for that of your family, get your updated COVID-19 shot as soon as you're eligible," said Fauci, who will retire next month from his roles in government as the chief medical adviser to US President Joe Biden, as well as being the chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

In what seemed to be his last White House appearance on Tuesday, the 81-year-old discussed the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine shot and wearing masks ahead of the holidays, his optimism about what will happen in the coming winter, and what "pains" him as a physician.

"It is clear now, despite an initial bit of confusion, that the BA.4/5 bivalent booster, what we refer to as the updated vaccine, clearly induces a better response against BA.4/5 and the sublineages of BA.4/5 than does the ancestral strain," Fauci said. "So from a pure immunological standpoint, it looks quite good."

The new bivalent COVID-19 booster shots, such as those rolled out by Pfizer and Moderna in September, are up to 56 percent more effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19 infection than the two original COVID-19 vaccines in adults aged 18 and up, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a data analysis released on Tuesday.

Fauci said 13 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed globally, with hundreds of millions in the United States.

In terms of efficacy, Fauci said recent data indicate that there is a 14 times lower risk of dying in the most recent BA.4/5 era for a person vaccinated and boosted, compared to an unvaccinated person, and at least a three times lower risk of testing positive compared to unvaccinated individuals.

Though vaccines targeting Omicron's sublineages BA.4 and BA.5 have been available since the summer, only 11 percent of the eligible US population aged 5 and above have received them. For the population aged 65 and above, the vaccination rate is nearly 30 percent, according to CDC statistics.

In total, at least 8 out of 10 people in the US have received at least one shot, and nearly 7 out of 10 have completed the primary series.

'Masking is important'

Fauci also said masking is one of the actions people can take to protect themselves.

"So, there is — masking is important. But you can count masking, vaccine, boosting, testing — all of that is part of the spectrum of protecting yourself and your family," he said.

Asked about the most difficult moment of the pandemic response over the past few years, Fauci said he suffered from the country's harsh political division.

"When I see people in this country because of the divisiveness in our country … not getting vaccinated for reasons that have nothing to do with public health, but have to do because of divisiveness and ideological differences," Fauci said.

Also at the White House briefing, Ashish Jha, Biden's COVID-19 coordinator, announced a "six-week sprint" to get more US citizens their updated shots before the winter settles in.

As of Tuesday, deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the US were 1,073,115 — the most in the world. The country recorded 2,222 deaths last week, according to the CDC.