Does Biden really think we believe this?
Amid a COVID test shortage, White House press secretary Jen Psaki blamed the situation on the absence of demand earlier in the year for the lack of supply.
Psaki’s comment, which didn’t take accountability for the administration’s role in the mishap, has come under fire now that the omicron variant –– which is more transmissible than the Delta variant ––is quickly becoming the dominant variant.
Earlier in the week, the White House announced it would be ordering 500 million at-home COVID-19 tests that would be delivered to Americans who request it. As a result of the last-minute test order, it is unlikely the tests will arrive before January despite demand surging during the holiday season as more Americans travel for Christmas.
When Psaki was questioned by a reporter why no one thought to order tests in advance, Psaki responded by reminding people about “the chain of events,” saying that before the Delta surged, there wasn’t demand for tests. Instead, she insisted that the federal government had to take steps to build a market for testing, adding that President Joe Biden used the Defense Production Act, by investing 3 billion dollars “several months ago to make sure we were building up the market.”
Psaki added that since the FDA had authorized an additional five at-home COVID-19 tests since October, the potential supply had increased.
In response to a different reporter bringing up an interview President Joe Biden had with David Muir of ABC News –– in which the president said he wished he “had thought about ordering a half a million pills two months ago before COVID hit here” –– Psaki reiterated her previous answer.
Given that it seemed the administration was ill-prepared, Peter Doocy of Fox News queried President Biden’s statements that “nobody in the whole world” saw it coming. Experts had predicted that there would be many new variants emerging from underdeveloped countries with poor access to vaccines. To answer Doocy, Psaki clarified, stating that Biden was referring to the severity of the variants.
