After his victory against Donald Trump, Joe Biden pledged to “follow the science” of expelling the United States from the corona virus epidemic: a year later, the president’s message erupted, with a shortage of test kits and fierce opposition to the vaccine by some Americans.
Data released on Wednesday shows a new epidemic record – an average of 265,427 daily cases per seven days – underscoring the government’s inability to control the virus, with the Omigron variant dominating the country.
The good news is that Omigron, despite being highly contagious, appears to cause less severe symptoms than its predecessor Delta, with only an 11% increase in hospital admissions.
This information is “encouraging” but we should avoid “complacency” because the hospital system could be in even more trouble, White House adviser Anthony Fossy warned on Wednesday about the health crisis.
The rapid spread of the Omigran variant has already caused some devastation and political devastation for the Biden administration and the Democrats.
The rise in pollution caused thousands of planes to crash in the middle of the holiday season, disrupting catering and major sports championships or canceling events.
When he took office in January 2021, Joe Biden promised to control the epidemic after several months of irregular administration by his predecessor. After the successful launch of the mass vaccination campaign, on July 4, the American national holiday, he went so far as to promise that the country was “close to declaring its independence from the virus.”
But, this summer was weighed down by the appearance of the delta variant, and later this winter Omigran, the Democrat, was criticized from all quarters and his popularity ratio dropped to 43%.
Degree of tolerance
The New York Post, One of the most outspoken critics of the White House, did not blame Govt-19 for the president, but condemned his strategy to control the epidemic.
“The Biden group, its exaggeration, incompetence, hypocrisy and blatant lies, did not inspire confidence,” the newspaper said in its editorial on Tuesday.
“Remember that the Democrats’ campaign is based on the fact that the Chinese virus can be eliminated quickly and easily?” Their whole campaign is a lie, ”former President Donald Trump said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that he had underestimated the epidemic during his tenure.
At the end of the year there are more and more criticisms about the lack of quick self-testing tools while testing centers are hit by the storm.
“We still have work to do,” Joe Biden acknowledged Monday, citing an increase in the number of test sites and the free distribution of 500 million kits since January.
On Wednesday, the government completed two new self-tests and signed a $ 137 million contract to supply materials needed to produce rapid tests.
Howard Foreman, a professor of public health at Yale University, believes it is “essential” to regularly examine people at risk for the disease before serious complications begin.
“For each high-risk category, I will do tests as soon as possible,” he told AFP.
But according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the best protection against the virus is the vaccine, which kills 14 times more people who are not vaccinated.
Here, too, Joe Biden faces a stubborn refusal to allow a section of the population to be vaccinated, mostly in Republican-majority states. Despite the intensive vaccine campaign and the ease of access to injections, only 62% of Americans have been fully vaccinated and 33% have received the booster dose.
This week, the CDC halved the length of isolation for asymptomatic positive cases to five days, signaling a non-consensual gesture in the work world to control absenteeism.
This result illustrates the difficulty the government has in satisfying everyone at the same time.
And CDC director Rochelle Valensky agreed Wednesday that health officials rely on scientific principles, but also make human and political factors to make their decisions.
“It really has a lot to do with what we think is the tolerance level of the people,” he told CNN.
