U.S. President Joe Biden will get the COVID booster shot but will wait until it is widely available, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday.

       “We’ll wait until it’s widely available, which we expect to be soon,” Psaki told reporters at the White House.

       Biden told ABC News in August that he and first lady Jill Biden would receive a third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine to boost their immunity, as his administration unveiled plans to make third doses of the approved two-dose COVID-19 vaccines available for U.S. adults starting Sept. 20.

       The booster program is being launched even as millions of Americans have yet to have their initial shots and as many around the world await vaccine supplies.

       Biden, 78, and his wife received their first shots of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines in December, when vaccines were just being rolled out in the United States.

       U.S. health officials have defended the administration’s plan to offer Americans’ additional protection against the virus with another vaccine dose, even as others await initial shots, noting that United States has also donated more vaccine doses internationally than every other country combined.

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