The Biden administration is now scrambling to get 500 million COVID available to the public.
But it seems unlikely that these tests will be available anytime soon. As PJM’s Stephen Green noted Thursday, there is no contract yet for these kits to be produced, let alone distributed. In fact, by the time they arrive, the omicron variant wave will likely be over.
Biden essentially admitted he dropped the ball on omicron in an interview with ABC “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir on Wednesday.
“Three days before Christmas, if you look out across the country, you see it everywhere, these long lines, people waiting for hours outside in the cold, just to get tested, to be reassured before they spend time with their family,” Muir said. “If you go to the pharmacy, we hear this over and over again, empty shelves, no test kits. Is that a failure?”
“I don’t think it’s a failure,” Biden replied. “I think it’s—you could argue that we should have known a year ago, six months ago, two months ago, a month ago. I’ve ordered half a billion on the pills [sic], 500 million pills [sic]. Excuse me, 500 million test kits that are going to be available to be sent to every home in America if anybody wants them. But the answer is, yeah, I wish I had thought about ordering half a billion pills [sic] two months ago before COVID hit here.”
But Biden’s failure to order tests months ago was not, as he implied, a case of lack of foresight.
On September 9, which was before the emergence of the omicron variant, Biden, announced a plan “to purchase nearly 300 million rapid tests for distribution to community health centers, food banks, schools.”
Free testing would also be expanded to 10,000 pharmacies. According to Biden, this plan would mean “every American, no matter their income, can access free and convenient tests.”
Where are these tests? Where’s the expanded access to free testing? Why was the Biden administration seemingly blindsided? It turns out that the administration had been presented with a strategy for free rapid tests during the holiday season, but that plan was rejected.
Despite prioritizing testing in the early months of the administration, Biden pivoted to vaccinations as a means for combating the virus.
“This is a failure of imagination, and failure of leadership is in large part why we’re here,” Leana Wen, who was on Biden’s coronavirus transition team told the Washington Post. Wen thinks that the Biden administration did a “great job” with vaccinations, “but they should have done just as much with testing.”
Wen added, “I’m very disappointed by their lack of focus on testing earlier because we saw this one coming.”
Another former transition official, who spoke anonymously to The Post, agreed.
“They were like, ‘Great. We can vaccine our way out of this thing, so we don’t need so many tests,'” they said.
Biden’s decision to prioritize vaccinations instead of testing was intentional, not a failure of foresight. And now Biden is paying the price. The Washington Post described the shortage of COVID tests as “[the Biden] administration’s failure to avert a covid testing shortfall,” and the media doesn’t seem to be pulling punches either.
ABC’s David Muir certainly didn’t. “You’re a year into the presidency, empty shelves and no test kits in some places, three days before Christmas when it’s so important. Is that good enough?” he asked Biden during his interview.
“No, nothing has been good enough,” Biden admitted.
