President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass billions of dollars in additional funding to fight the COVID-19 pandemic on Wednesday, as he received a second booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine a day after federal regulators approved a fourth shot for those aged 50 and older.

President Joe Biden gave a speech Wednesday about the fight against Covid-19 in the U.S.

The president’s remarks come a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended a fourth Covid vaccine shot of Pfizer or Moderna for people ages 50 or older. The CDC also recommended that certain younger people with compromised immune systems should receive a fifth of dose.

Biden received his fourth dose after his speech.

President Biden received his fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday and announced the launch of informational website COVID.gov — as he urges Congress to pass billions of dollars in fresh pandemic funds.

A White House doctor administered Biden’s shot after the president gives remarks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at 1:30 p.m.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday approved a second vaccine “booster” shot for people age 50 and up, but warned that there may not be enough for the general public if the age threshold is lowered.

U.S. drug regulators have directed health care workers in eight states to stop using a COVID-19 treatment because it may not be effective against an Omicron coronavirus subvariant that’s rising in prevalence.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody used to treat COVID-19, can no longer be used in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Providers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands also have been told to stop using stotrovimab.

In recent weeks, mask mandates across the country have been dropped as covid case rates and hospitalizations have fallen with the waning of the omicron wave. Everyone hopes that even if the virus never completely disappears, it could become merely endemic and not the dominant reality of everyday life that it has been for two years.

Yet there are signs a new wave could be on its way, now that one is already hitting Europe. Should that happen, Democrats ought to know that they’ll get the blame.

All epidemics trigger the same dispiriting cycle. First, panic: As new pathogens emerge, governments throw money, resources, and attention at the threat. Then, neglect: Once the danger dwindles, budgets shrink and memories fade. The world ends up where it started, forced to confront each new disease unprepared and therefore primed for panic. This Sisphyean sequence occurred in the United States after HIV, anthrax, SARS, Ebola, and Zika. It occurred in Republican administrations and Democratic ones. It occurs despite decades of warnings from public-health experts.

In the interest of providing much-needed aid to Ukraine, avoiding a government shutdown, and sending as much pork home to their home districts as possible, members of Congress acted on a bipartisan basis this month and passed an omnibus spending bill six months into the fiscal year.

As badly as they behaved in doing this, they at least had the good sense to purge from this 2,700-page monstrosity President Joe Biden's request for $22.5 billion (later $15.6 billion) in additional funds for COVID relief.

The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to effectively revoke emergency use authorization for two monoclonal antibody treatments has left experts divided, with some calling it the right move and others asserting it shouldn’t have been done.

The agency, of the FDA, on Jan. 24 announced it was barring use of treatments from Eli Lilly and Regeneron anywhere in the country because of federal data that indicate the Omicron virus variant is behind the vast majority of COVID-19 cases.

Gov. Ron DeSantis is blasting the Biden administration after the FDA revoked the use of two different monoclonal antibody treatments, forcing Florida to shutter treatment clinics across the state.

Driving the news: The FDA halted monoclonal antibody cocktails made by Regeneron and Eli Lilly on Monday after finding they’re not effective against the Omicron variant.

The FDA pointed to CDC statistics showing that Omicron accounted for 99% of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. as of Jan. 15.

The Food and Drug Administration pulled its authorization of two of the most used monoclonal antibodies to treat COVID-19 this week, leaving doctors with fewer options to help their patients avoid the hospital.

Why did the FDA shut them down?

Because the two, from drugmakers Regeneron and Eli Lilly, don't work against the omicron variant that now causes more than 99% of coronavirus infections in the United States.