President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the administration is doubling its order for Pfizer\u2019s COVID-19 antiviral pill.
\nThe administration previously ordered 10 million courses of treatment in 2021, with Biden\u2019s latest announcement the U.S. government will have ordered 20 million treatments in total.<\/p>\n

The Pfizer pill, Paxlovid, won\u2019t be available immediately, with only 35,000 additional courses due to be delivered this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe United States has more pills than any other country in the world and our supply is going to ramp up over the coming months, as more of these pills are manufactured,\u201d Biden said Tuesday. \u201cToday I\u2019m directing my team to work with Pfizer to double our order from 10 million to 20 million treatment courses to be delivered in the months ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden noted that the first batch of the antiviral pill was shipped out on Christmas Eve and promised more \u201cthis week,\u201d though increasing production will still take months. Before the president\u2019s comments, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla tweeted that the 20 million treatment courses \u201cwill be delivered\u201d by the \u201cend of September.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bourla wrote that around 10 million pills have been \u201caccelerated for delivery by the end of June.\u201d<\/p>\n

Biden also addressed the ongoing testing issue the U.S. is experiencing, calling it \u201cfrustrating\u201d but promised that the government is \u201cmaking improvements.\u201d The Omicron variant, which is more contagious but has less serious symptoms, sparked long lines and testing shortages around the country ahead of the holidays.<\/p>\n

In response to the shortage, the administration said it would be making 500 million tests available for free to Americans who request one.
\nThere are many questions about the administration\u2019s plan, such as how many tests will one household be allowed to order and what specific website the tests will be available through. The plan was not ready to be implemented before the holidays when the U.S. saw many Americans go for testing ahead of travel.<\/p>\n

The president pushed vaccines and boosters, saying that vaccinated Americans \u201care highly protected\u201d against Omicron. He issued a warning to unvaccinated Americans and said \u201cthis continues to be a pandemic of the unvaccinated.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can still get COVID, but it\u2019s highly unlikely that you\u2019ll become seriously ill,\u2019\u2019 the president said. \u201cIf you\u2019re vaccinated and boosted, you are highly protected. Be concerned about Omicron, but don\u2019t be alarmed. And if you\u2019re unvaccinated, you have some reasons to be alarmed. You\u2019ll experience severe illness in many cases.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no excuse for anyone being unvaccinated,\u201d Biden also declared.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the administration is doubling its order for Pfizer\u2019s COVID-19 antiviral pill. The administration previously ordered 10 million courses of treatment in 2021, with Biden\u2019s latest announcement the U.S. government will have ordered 20 million treatments in total. The Pfizer pill, Paxlovid, won\u2019t be available immediately, with only 35,000 additional …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4595,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4594","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\n