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Joe Biden having his booster vaccination
Photo: Ken Cedeno / imago images / UPI Photo
A few days after corona booster vaccinations were approved, Joe Biden received a corona booster vaccination.
The 78-year-old had received his first two doses of vaccine in December and January.
The US health and drug authorities last week gave the go-ahead for third-party vaccinations with the vaccine from Biontech / Pfizer.
People aged 65 and over, people with an increased risk of a serious illness and employees in professions with a high risk of infection, such as doctors, nurses and teachers, are entitled to the third-party vaccination.
The booster is possible six months after the second vaccination dose.
Dispute over booster vaccination
However, the issue had caused controversy within the US FDA and the CDC.
In particular, the question of whether or not members of professional groups with an increased risk of infection should be entitled to a third-party vaccination was contested.
A CDC panel of experts voted against it.
However, Rochelle Walensky, head of the authority, disregarded the committee's recommendation and thus significantly expanded the group of potential recipients.
The question of a booster vaccination is fundamentally controversial.
Proponents argue that an additional dose of vaccine increases protection against infection with the coronavirus.
This applies in particular in view of the spread of the delta variant and a decrease in immunity over time.
Opponents of a booster vaccination, on the other hand, say that two doses of the vaccine would already offer sufficient protection, especially against serious and fatal courses of the disease. They believe that the focus should be on vaccinating people who have not been vaccinated - in the US, but also in developing countries where there is a shortage of vaccines.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's spokesman, Ned Price, announced that he had tested positive for the corona virus after a week of high-level meetings at the UN General Assembly. Price wrote on Twitter on Monday that he first developed symptoms on Monday morning and tested positive shortly afterwards. He will now be in quarantine for ten days. Price had accompanied Blinken at many meetings with foreign partners on the sidelines of the UN general debate over the past week.
A State Department spokeswoman said Blinken tested negative for the virus during a routine check on Monday morning. Nobody else from the delegation who had traveled to the UN General Assembly in New York had so far developed symptoms. The spokeswoman also emphasized that Price had not been in personal contact with other foreign delegations since Thursday. According to the Ministry's doctors, the risk of infection by Price probably only began on Saturday. Price has not met Blinken since Saturday.
At the General Assembly of the United Nations, a corona infection had already caused a stir in the Brazilian delegation: Brazilian Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga announced last week that he had tested positive for the corona virus.
He had taken part in the UN general debate with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, who caused quite a stir because he did not want to be vaccinated, and he was also at the UN headquarters on the East River.
Another member of the delegation had previously tested positive.
Even before the UN general debate, the American hosts expressed concern that state guests and their delegations from more than 100 countries in New York could spread the virus.
kha / AFP / dpa