President Joe Biden indicated that it will take 97 to 98 percent of Americans receiving the COVID-19 jab before he lets the nation move on from the pandemic. The moment came during a White House event on Monday, where the president was receiving his COVID-19 booster shot.
“I think we get the vast majority … 97 percent, 98 percent. I think we’ll get awful close,” he said. “But I’m not the scientist. I think one thing is for certain. A quarter of the country can’t go unvaccinated and us not continue to have a problem.”
REPORTER: "How many Americans need to be vaccinated for us to get back to normal?"
BIDEN: "97%, 98%. I think we'll get awful close. But I'm not the scientist. I think one thing is for certain. A quarter of the country can't go unvaccinated and us not continue to have a problem." pic.twitter.com/oT0zRXxpJo
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 27, 2021
The president later went on to note that the U.S. will continue funding efforts to expand global COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
“We’re doing more than every other nation in the world combined. We’re going to have well over billion, one million shots,” Biden said. “We’ll continue going. We’ll do our part. We’ve also given a great deal of funding to COVAX, which is the vehicle that does this, so we have plenty, plenty of opportunities to make sure we get everyone in the world. We played our part, the largest part in the world, of getting everyone vaccinated.”
The comments from Biden outwardly dismiss mounting evidence of the role natural immunity plays in protecting previously infected COVID patients that have recovered from the respiratory virus. According to a recent Israeli study conducted by researchers at Tel Aviv University, individuals previously infected with COVID-19 could be 13 times less likely to contract the virus than those who were solely vaccinated against the disease.
Moreover, studies from Emory University, the Cleveland Clinic, and the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have also shown that recovered COVID patients possess robust, natural immunity long after infection.
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