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WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden sought to reassure Americans on Monday about the latest COVID-19 variant, describing it as “a cause for concern, not a cause for panic.”
Biden did not announce any new travel restrictions or other federal actions during his brief remarks from the White House.
Instead, he urged Americans to get a booster shot to increase their immunity against COVID-19 — and to be patient while scientists gather more data on what exactly the new omicron variant will mean.
“We have the best vaccine in the world, the best medicines, the best scientists, and we’re learning more every single day,” Biden said. “We’ll fight this variant with scientific and knowledgeable actions and speed, not chaos and confusion.”
The White House already had restricted travel from eight nations, including South Africa, which first identified the new variant.
Other countries also have restricted travel as cases involving the new variant have been detected in a growing number of countries, including Canada and parts of Europe.
So far, U.S. public health officials say they believe the current COVID-19 vaccines will provide protection against the new variant. But it likely will take several weeks to gather data on how the mutations in the new variant make it easier to transmit or cause more serious disease.
Biden said his administration will share the information it gathers “candidly and promptly.” He also said that top health officials are working with the three authorized vaccine manufacturers to ensure they are preparing in case they need to tweak their products to adapt to the variant.
The president also said he will be announcing on Thursday a detailed strategy for fighting the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the winter, including more widespread vaccinations, boosters and testing.
“We have moved forward in the face of the delta variant,” Biden said, referencing the variant that caused a surge in infections over the summer. “And we move forward now in the face of the omicron variant as well.”
Arizona Mirror is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Arizona Mirror maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jim Small for questions: info@azmirror.com. Follow Arizona Mirror on Facebook and Twitter.
This article appears in Nov 25 – Dec 1, 2021.
He is partially correct. HE is the cause for panic. And he doesn’t know it.
I tried typing Omicron and spellcheck corrected me:
M O R O N I C
There is a message in there. Heed it.
PANIC
“Partially correct” – Let’s Go Brandon
Yes, but the media, medical & pharmaceutical industries, & politicians started the panic promotion months before anybody put words in Biden’s mouth.
According to the CDC website, there are four Covid infections for every recorded infection.
If so, that would mean we’ve had over 5 million infections in Arizona intermingled with our 4.5 million vaccinations.
Assuming proportionate overlap between infections and vaccinations, that implies that we have over 6.5 million Arizonans with substantial immunity.
Less than a million to go. If that 4 is solid, we are infecting 12,000 people a day and vaccinating probably about 8,000 a day.
Less than 100 days to complete immunity at this pace.
Nothing is linear but, it gives you a sense of what might be.
Israeli studies (the best) show that natural immunity is much more effective than vaccination at stopping infection and hospitalization.
There is also a phenomenon known as super-human immunity. Requires a very specific path: 1) get infected 2) wait at least 6 months 3) get vaccinated.
A much more robust and durable immunity. Likely to be powerful against all future variants.
Wearing a mask properly is simply as good as stopping at signs. Stop the spread.
The reality is we don’t know how effective the current vaccines (or previous infection) are against Omicron yet. Many scientists are not optimistic (because of the large number of mutations), but they don’t know, and Biden certainly doesn’t.
Presidents don’t want panic, so Biden will lie (if necessary) to try to prevent one (like Fauci lied about masks not helping at the start of COVID). You can call them noble lies, but they still hurt credibility if/when discovered.
The US has essentially abandoned all strategies except vaccines, whose effectiveness wanes fairly quickly. Mask wearing and improved ventilation would help against all variants of COVID, but the CDC’s latest recommendation is vaccines, boosters, and hand washing. I guess the good news is that we (probably) won’t get to a million COVID deaths until next year.
“Wearing a mask properly is simply as good as stopping at signs. Stop the spread.”
Stop? Not likely unless you are carefully wearing an N95, preferably 3M.
At thread counts of perhaps 600 threads per inch, masks made of fibers other than polypropylene and lacking its electrostatic properties, are like trying to stop a mosquito with a chain link fence. This virus, airborne obviously from the beginning, which CDC finally acknowledged a year an a half in, is one-tenth of a millionth of an inch.