Two weeks ago, the Biden administration scoffingly dismissed the notion of distributing free COVID testing kits as the highly contagious, yet less severe, Omicron variant swept across the country.
President Joe Biden, in a floundering performance during an address Tuesday that was supposed to demonstrate his grasp on handling the pandemic, flopped with a weak promise to now do what he said two weeks ago he wouldn’t do.
It’s suddenly critically important to know who is infected, Biden said of his administration’s brainstorm to purchase a half-billion at-home COVID test kits and distribute them for free to Americans who request them through a website.
The need is so critical, in fact, that the Biden administration in going to wait a whole month to start distributing the kits.
Biden whiffed when pressed to explain why his administration had dawdled to address the lack of adequate testing.
“I don’t think anybody anticipated this would be as rapid at spreading as it did,” he said, “then all of the sudden it was like everybody rushed to the counter was a big, big rush.”
He insisted his administration’s lack of preparedness wasn’t “a failure,” and bristled after being asked why it took so long to ramp up testing.
“Come on, ‘what took so long?’” Biden said. “What took so long is it didn’t take long at all.”
Biden also continued his scolding of the unvaccinated, despite several high-profile leftist politicians who were double-vaxxed and boostered-up recently testing positive for COVID: Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Rep. Jason Crow of Colorado, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Added to those ranks, the White House recently announced that the president had been in close contact on Air Force One with a double-vaccinated and boosted staffer who tested positive for COVID. Biden tested negative after the exposure.
Still, Biden doubled-down on his previous pronouncement that the current coronavirus surge is a “pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
“You’re at a high risk of getting sick,” Biden said during his address. “And if you get sick you’re likely to spread it to others, including friends and family.
“If you are vaccinated and follow the precautions that we know well,” he said, “you should feel comfortable celebrating the Christmas holiday as you planned it. You know you’ve done the right thing. Enjoy the holiday season.”
Biden said that getting the COVID vaccine is “your patriotic duty” and “an obligation to your country.”
And stop fretting the vaccine mandates, Biden told Americans. While conceding that his authoritarian fiats are “unpopular” with some people, Biden explained that they have been implemented “not to control your life, but to save your life and the lives of others.”
The real problem, Biden said, comes from anyone who questions vaccine mandates, dismisses mask mandates, or refuses to acknowledge that Anthony Fauci and his team of crackerjack minions could be anything but totally correct.
“You know, these companies and personalities are making money by peddling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and their own supporters,” Biden said. “It’s wrong. It’s immoral, I call on the purveyors of these lies and misinformation to stop it, stop it now.”
That would likely include the tens of thousands of employers and employees who are worried their jobs could be on the line if Biden’s dictum for vaccine mandates at large private companies makes it through the Supreme Court.
“The rule is legal and effective, and it’s going to save thousands of American lives,” Biden said, ignoring the many court rulings that have gone against his various mandates and focusing on the one recent win that was immediately appealed by business owners concerned that it would drive them out of business.
“I know you’re tired. I really mean this, and I know you’re frustrated,” Biden said in his closing remarks.
“We all want this to be over. But we’re still in it. And this is a critical moment,” Biden said. “We also have more tools than we have ever had before. We’re ready. We’ll get through this.”
