Joe’s COVID Blather
All lies, slurring and repetition
AFTER President Biden finished his almost insanely repetitive speech on COVID — he literally said every single thing three times over, in a manner that suggested three different speech drafts had been prepared and all three were simply read serially even though they were entirely duplicative — he lost his temper.
Asked by someone in the media why “it took so long” for his administration to get serious about providing home exams and other forms of COVID tests to the American people, he snapped: “Come on, ‘What took so long?’ It didn’t take long at all. What happened was the Omicron virus spread more rapidly than anyone thought.”
That is a hilarious untruth, so brazen you have to admire Biden for even attempting something this Trumpian.
Once Omicron was detected in the fourth week of November, the world went bananas precisely because it was going to spread rapidly. That was the reason everybody was afraid of it — because of its potential virulence and the fact that it seemed almost designed to elude and defeat some of the vaccines being used worldwide to combat COVID.
Here is a representative quote from The New York Times on Nov. 26, or 25 days ago: “Just two days after the world learned of the variant, the World Health Organization officially labeled it a ‘variant of concern,’ its most serious category — the first since the Delta variant, which emerged a year ago. The designation means that the variant has mutations that might make it more contagious or more virulent, or make vaccines and other preventive measures less effective.”
During his COVID blather, Biden went on to claim that if he had said in November it would spread as rapidly as it has, people would have replied, “Biden, have you been drinking?” While that would be one explanation for why he slurred every third word in the speech, in fact, no one would have thought he was drinking had he said this — since that’s what everybody was saying would happen.
The truth is that he and his people didn’t do anything about testing then because — well, who knows why he didn’t? We need a Bob Woodward book to explain it to us in a year’s time. For now it’s enough to say Biden didn’t act — and right now, nationally, you cannot get your hands on a home antigen test to save your life.
Go ahead. Give it a try. Go to every Web site in America. Here’s what you’ll see. “Out of stock.” “Sold out.” “Delivery by Jan. 10.”
Trust me. I spent an hour at it Monday and two hours at it Tuesday. They’re all gone. Poof. And guess what the television COVIDhysteric doctors are all blathering about? They’re all saying, “Look, if you want to hang out with your family on Christmas, you better get tested first!”
Oh, really? Where the hell are you supposed to get tested? I got tested Sunday. In Times Square. In the cold rain. I got there at 8:45 a.m. I was done by 10:45 a.m. When I left, the line was probably 300people long. My two hours were going to be six hours for them.
Judging from what I saw on New York streets Tuesday morning, testing lines are beginning to approach gas lines during the oil embargoes in 1973 and 1979.
But wait, everybody — here comes Joe Biden to save the day, like Mighty Mouse. He’s going to open testing sites! Federal testing sites! There are going to be 10 — count ’em, 10 — whole sites in New York City beginning this week!
Whoop-de-freakin’-doo! More than 8.5 million people in the Naked City, and 10 new whole sites are being opened up as the Omicron virus spreads like wildfire! It’s like bringing a water gun to put out the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.
Only here’s the thing: Omicron gives every indication of being a far milder version of COVID than any we’ve seen thus far. Which is great news, as it’s now the dominant variant in the United States and we want the dominant strain to be weaker and less dangerous.
Biden said this. A little bit. Mostly he spent the speech importuning the unvaccinated to get vaccinated. Don’t get me wrong, it’s good advice — hey, even Donald Trump is giving it now, including getting boosted.
But when it comes to Omicron, it’s slightly beside the point because the reason Omicron is spreading the way it is right now is that — unlike Delta — it’s infecting the already vaccinated. It appears it’s doing very little harm to them. But it’s infecting them nonetheless.
This guy can give three speeches in one speech and still miss the point. My Lord, he’s bad at being president.