Biden announces omicron battle plan to include a half-billion free at-home tests New federal testing
Source: Washington Post
President Biden on Tuesday outlined plans to expand coronavirus testing sites across the country, distribute a half-billion free at-home tests and deploy more federal health resources to aid strained hospitals, as the omicron variant drives a fresh wave of infections.
At the White House, Biden acknowledged that Americans are “tired, worried and frustrated” with covid-19, which he described as a “tough adversary.” But he stressed in remarks at the White House that “we’ve shown that we’re tougher; tougher because we have the power of science and vaccines that prevent illness and save lives.”
The president said Americans have an obligation to get vaccinated, calling it a “patriotic duty,” and pointed to former president Donald Trump’s comment that he got his vaccine booster shot.
Biden stressed that while the number of covid cases have soared to levels not seen since 2020, the outlook was far different with vaccines and other treatment.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/12/21/biden-omicron-speech-covid-testing-hospitals/
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appalachiablue
(44,085 posts)- 'Biden to pledge 500M free COVID-19 tests to counter omicron,' 1 hour ago, AP News.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the omicron variant on the march, President Joe Biden plans to announce 500 million free rapid tests for Americans, increased support for hospitals under strain and a redoubling of vaccination and boosting efforts. In a speech scheduled for Tuesday afternoon, Biden is detailing major changes to his COVID-19 winter plan, his hand forced by the arrival of the fast-spreading variant, whose properties are yet not fully understood by scientists.
The world is confronting a second straight COVID-19 holiday season as families and friends begin to gather. Scientists don’t yet know for sure how serious the disease caused by omicron can usually be, but they do know that vaccination should offer strong protections against severe illness and death.
The White House provided details on the proposals Biden will announce in his speech. A cornerstone of the plan is Biden’s decision for the government to purchase 500 million coronavirus rapid tests for free shipment to Americans starting in January. People will use a new website to order their tests, which will then be sent by U.S. mail at no charge, the White House said...
https://apnews.com/article/coronavirus-pandemic-joe-biden-health-jen-psaki-08ee41d8e7c0af1ad8b4dfb7b434ea61
Orrex
(67,201 posts)Even now, a significant fraction of the population hears anything less than a full lockdown as "feel free to gather in crowds and breathe in each other's face."
IronLionZion
(51,380 posts)Boosters are this administration's priority at this point in the pandemic to prevent hospitalization and death.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)Absent a nationwide vaccine mandate, however, covid will continue on its merry way.
I get it. We are in a fight against covid and its Republikkkan allies. If Biden had called for a nationwide lockdown, as several other countries have done with good result, he would have been immediately sued by every Republikkkan governor in the nation, no doubt with some calling for his impeachment.
IronLionZion
(51,380 posts)The 1918 flu never ended. It just kept mutating in a way that most every flu strain since has that original strain as an ancestor.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)Still, it seems like there must be some solution more productive than "get the booster if you want, and otherwise we'll all sit by while half the nation does whatever the fuck it wants regardless of the pandemic."
Ace Rothstein
(3,373 posts)As far as I'm aware that's a state and local issue.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)And does no one at the federal level have jurisdiction over the federal interstate highways? Limiting travel in this way would certainly reduce travel to such gatherings, though I accept that the fed has no direct power to limit them.
Still, I wanted to hear something more proactive than "keep doing just what you've been doing, except please get a booster if you really want to."
Note to anyone who's thinking of calling me out for misrepresenting Biden's message in the preceding sentence: spare me. At this state of the pandemic I have no patience for half-measures nor for those here or elsewhere who would champion them.
The problem is that our esteemed founding fathers failed to predict that a cult of ignorant fuckheads would work so tirelessly to thwart even the most tepid and limited efforts by the fed to protect public health.
IronLionZion
(51,380 posts)there wasn't a vaccine. SmallPox was eradicated from the whole world before I was even born, due to global mass vaccination, not lockdowns. So in that perspective, vaccination is the full measure. We are lucky to have it.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)No shit we're lucky to have the vaccine. I defy you to find any statement by me anywhere--ever--to the contrary.
We're also lucky that vaccines aren't the only methods of controlling the spread of illness.
However, it is a fucking tragedy that so much of the nation doesn't give a shit about those other methods, and many don't give a shit about any methods at all.
And those of us who live and work in pandemic hotbeds would rather not rely on the vain hope that our stubbornly ignorant Trump-fluffing neighbors will help curtail the spread locally.
But sure. Let's bank on the vaccine and abandon all other efforts to curtail the virus. Because anything less than an actual mandate with actual consequences will amount to little more than a flaccid suggestion quickly ignored.
Ace Rothstein
(3,373 posts)As soon as those measures are relaxed then everything blows back up again. People also aren't willing to give up their lives for years at a time.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)Can you point me to any statement by me in favor of forgoing vaccines? Because otherwise your comment has little relevance to what I posted.
In addition to which, your comment that "there is no curtailing" it is more or less identical to the KKKonservative argument against taking any precautions whatsoever, i.e., "you'll either catch it or you won't, so why bother with prevention?"
For that matter, who is asking anyone "to give up their lives for years at a time?" That's hyperbolic bullshit entirely out of proportion with reality.
Ace Rothstein
(3,373 posts)My point about vaccines is that they don't fully protect one from getting or giving COVID. Because of that, we're going to have to live with it and we're all probably going to end up getting it. I am ok with lockdowns on a local level to protect hospitals but from a national level they aren't effective in a country the size of the US.
I see posters here all the time asking why people are traveling, going to sporting events or eating out. So yes, the insinuation is that we should all be staying home until some magical day when COVID is over.
NullTuples
(6,017 posts)I'm guessing Amazon sold a half-billion kits before they ran out. And by pushing at home tests what is being promoted is that indoor gatherings are just fine. A coworker of mine went to the company holiday lunch despite testing positive because they figured they'd just not stay as long as they would have if they'd tested negative.
I'd have appreciated a much stronger "get vaxed, mask up, pretend like it's Q2 of 2020 again" message. Stay home. Do not gather. Don't travel for the holidays. That sort of thing.
My other fear is this: if monoclonal antibodies have been rendered useless by Omacron, and it evades both prior exposure and vaccine induced antibodies...has anyone tested the at home tests recently for accuracy? They are based on antibodies, too.
underpants
(196,794 posts)10 minute test.
BumRushDaShow
(170,482 posts)I would expect that since there are some shared characteristics between Omicron and previous variants (that the tests pick up), then enough of an exposure should trigger some kind of response in the immune system (if someone is not severely immuno-compromised) and a good rapid test should be able to pick up that "trigger" molecule (antigen).
Per the above article, they do note that due to where Omicron tends to land for replication (vs earlier variants), the nasal sampling might yield a lower amount of virus, perhaps not enough to generate a positive - but then the test kits are supposed to be based on "2 tests per person" (the 2nd to be given some time interval after the first - a minimum being around 36 hours), so that if someone is really positive but with a very low viral load, if replication continues, there would most likely be enough to generate that positive. Otherwise if there is still no positive, it's possible the body naturally cleared what little was there (whether thanks to vaccines or some immunity left after a previous infection).
riversedge
(81,049 posts)yet today. Busy holiday but I masked up on my two errands today. Just saw a few others masked. sad. but I made sure to keep my distance also.
Marthe48
(23,236 posts)and willfully spread the virus to 8 or 10 more people each. Just at lunch.
Orrex
(67,201 posts)Get people out buying, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead.
Cicada
(4,533 posts)The new Pfizer pill stops 89% of covid deaths…when started in the first 5 days of symptoms.
OneCrazyDiamond
(2,068 posts)This has been missing, and I am so glad to see them address testing like this. 
TexasBushwhacker
(21,231 posts)There are no appointments available for rapid tests in my area and everyone is out of the home tests. I tried to go to a drive thru free test today during my lunch break, but after sitting in the same spot for 20 minutes I gave up. I'm supposed to see my 92 year old aunt for the first time in 2 years on Christmas Day. I'm triple vaxxed, but I really wish I could have gotten a rapid test today.