Dr. Anthony Fauci urged vaccinated Americans to get a COVID-19 booster shot as the Omicron variant continues to spread. Speaking with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, Dr. Fauci said that while early evidence suggests the new variant is not as severe as the Delta variant, it is still highly transmissible and may evade vaccine protection.
"The level of severity appears to be maybe a bit less than delta. But there are a lot of confounding issues there," Fauci told Stephanopoulos. "It may be due to the underlying protection in the community due to prior infections, but these are just preliminary data that we're going to have to just follow carefully to get them confirmed."
Dr. Fauci said that the booster shots have been shown to provide more robust protection against the Omicron variant.
"I think if you look at the data, the more and more, it becomes clear that if you want to be optimally protected, you really should get a booster," Fauci said. "It's the optimal care."
When asked if people should expect to have to get yearly boosters, Dr. Fauci wouldn't rule out that possibility.
"If it becomes necessary to get yet another boost, then we'll just have to deal with it when that occurs," he said.
For now, the government isn't planning to change the definition of fully vaccinated to require a booster shot.
"For official requirements, it's still two shots of the mRNA and one shot of the J&J for the official determination of what's required or not," he said.