The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases spoke at the White House on Wednesday.
The White House's chief medical advisor said Wednesday that the current booster shots do not need to be adjusted to fight the new, highly contagious strain of the virus.
Fauci told the public during a White House Covid update on Wednesday that their booster vaccine regimen works against omicron. There is no need for a variant-specific booster.
Fauci said that the primary two-dose vaccine series from Pfizer and BioNTech is compromised by omicron, but still offers protection against severe disease. The two-dose vaccine's protection against infections fell to 33% from 80% before the emergence of omicron. Fauci said that two doses are still 70% effective at preventing hospitalization in omicron patients.
Fauci said that there is a degree of protection against hospitalization.
Fauci said that a booster dose increases protection against disease to 75%.
The message remains clear. If you are unvaccinated, you should get a booster shot.
The unvaccinated are eight times more likely to end up in the hospital and 14 times more likely to die compared with people who are fully vaccine-free, according to White House Covid response coordinators.
The variant makes up 3% of Covid cases nationwide, according to the CDC Director. She said that omicron infections are more likely in New York and New Jersey.
Walensky said that early data shows that omicron is more transmissible than Delta.
According to CDC data, 61 percent of Americans are fully vaccined against Covid and 27% have received a booster shot.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services data, the number of Americans hospitalized with Covid-19 has increased over the last two weeks.
