Shortly after testing negative for COVID-19 after five days of isolation, President Joe Biden pointed to his relatively swift recovery from the virus as evidence that the government’s work on vaccine development and distribution was “making a huge difference” to help stem the pandemic. “My symptoms were mild, my recovery was quick, and I’m feeling great,” Biden said to an audience of White House staff in the Rose Garden. “Unfortunately, this COVID is still with us, as it has been for two and a half years. But our fight against COVID is making a huge difference. What’s different now is our ability to protect ourselves from serious illness due to COVID.” While the virus that has claimed more than 1 million American lives since the pandemic’s onset “isn’t gone,” Biden said, deaths from the illness are down 90 percent since its peak, and the public health infrastructure handling those cases is “radically different” from even one year ago. Biden also urged Americans to get booster shots, as he did, to prevent the most severe complications from breakthrough cases. “Every person aged 5 and over should get a booster shot. If you’re over 50 years old, you should get two booster shots—I did,” Biden said, noting that “your odds of getting severely ill from COVID are very, very low.”