It’s always fun, even a bit cynical, and ultimately sad on my part when I look to see who’s keeping score on the president these days… Just 1-2 years ago it seemed many of my friends were keeping a tight score on the last administration and its lack of (what they considered to be) an adequate covid response. How soon we all forget since the evil orange one isn’t in office any longer. Well, let’s replay the history and look at the score today:
The last administration was panned for not having any covid tests available. Never mind it was a new SARs strain that had no tests and they needed to be created. Detection was only initially possible in lab settings because covid was … yes … a totally new strain. But as they were leaving office, they had over 181 million tests completed with over a million more per day being produced (and accelerating). They were targeting 1 billion tests available and on track to get there, if the new administration would just let it continue…
And just this week, Biden is running out of tests all over the nation, after test kit production was not prioritized by the incoming administration, and now states are running out daily, all over the nation. This, as omicron infects up to 14x more easily. He said just yesterday, “we’re working on it”. Recall they were on pace for 500 million tests (at least) to be available by now if they just let the existing production orders stay in place … but the administration turned a blind eye when Abbott, among others, was allowed to seriously slow down test kit production, shutting down factories and laying off workers. The administration also didn’t seem to care that of the 13 tests approved by the FDA, 8 of them were finally approved in just the last 8 weeks … because of the omicron spike. Recently the administration pledged to “buy 500 million rapid tests and mail them to households” … before that they pledged to make “50 million tests available through libraries and clinics” … remember that? None of that has come to pass. Are we keeping score on that?
The last administration was panned for having limited PPE and ventilator supplies on hand. Never mind that the original depletion and subsequent inability to restock those supplies was caused a decade earlier (2009-2010) by Joe and Barack after the H1N1 outbreak that infected over 60M people in the US. The inventory was not only subsequently restocked by the last administration after quickly ramping up PPE production to meet demand (thank you, Honduras, incidentally), but they also leveraged the Defense Authorization/Production Act to get tens of thousands of modern ventilators produced and into the hands of states in need.
Never mind that FEMA and the military were ordered by the last administration to provide additional hospital bed capacity, e.g., the Denver Convention Center; the Javits Center in New York; the deployed Hospital Ships, etc. Almost all entirely unused by the governors of those states. Was that party-driven? Good question … but those were all Dem-led states. Hopefully just a coincidence. But recall that Cuomo is currently under Federal investigation for bypassing those very facilities and sending infected elderly back to nursing homes, where thousands more subsequently died.
And the president this week said, in an interview, that “we have no Federal response for this,” implying that it was the states’ responsibilities to handle kit distribution, hospital capacity, etc. If you’re keeping score, this is the EXACT thing that Biden and his party jumped all over the last administration for not making a Federal-driven issue and leaving the states empowered – with Federal support. The exact same thing. Does that get a score?
And of course, we are dragging our Federal feet on approvals for things like therapeutics, etc. – again. Five of these are out, with only a couple approved, and in limited case scenarios. Thank goodness for Operation Warp Speed, where red tape was cut and procedures streamlined. And even then, the CDC made a questionable decision to hold off on initial EUA Pfizer and Moderna vaccine approvals until the week after the election. They could have done so in September but opted for an 8-week extension/delay. Remember that? Keeping that score, too, I hope?
If we’re going to keep score on one, we should be compelled to keep score on both.
Thoughts to ponder as 2022 is upon us.
