President Joe Biden on Tuesday addressed the nation about how his administration plans to fight a surge in omicron cases raging around the United States, and he doubled down on his firmest warning yet to unvaccinated Americans about the risk they take by not getting the vaccine.
The omicron variant on Monday became the dominant strain of COVID-19 in the United States; federal health officials said the strain made up 73% of new infections last week.
President Biden on Tuesday acknowledged that many vaccinated Americans were likely to test positive for the highly infectious omicron variant, but he emphasized the protection that the vaccines, especially boosters, can offer, especially for those planning to gather with their family before the end of the year.
"Vaccinated people who get COVID may get ill, but they're protected from severe illness and death. That's why you should still remain vigilant," he said. "If you are vaccinated, and follow the precautions that we all know well, you should feel comfortable celebrating Christmas and the holidays as you planned."
And he issued a stark warning: "Omicron is serious, potentially deadly business for unvaccinated people."
"The unvaccinated are responsible for their own choices," Biden said, but noted that those choices have been "fueled" by misinformation circulating on social media and cable television.
"These companies and personalities that are making money by peddling lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their own customers and their own supporters," Biden added. "It's wrong, it's immoral. I call on the purveyors of these lies and misinformation to stop it. Stop it now."
Biden gave the speech Tuesday as the nation surpassed a seven-day average of 130,000 new COVID-19 cases daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and as new hospitalizations approached 8,000 per day.
But the president was also clear as he announced new steps to aid the country amid the omicron surge: the country is better off than it was last year.
"No, this is not March of 2020," he said.
Biden announced his administration has purchased 500 million COVID-19 at-home tests to be distributed to Americans free-of-charge come January, when the federal government will launch a website to search for the free tests. When launched, people will be able to order tests for free delivery.
The White House had faced backlash for not taking action to make more free tests available when omicron was first discovered in late November. They originally planned to send 50 million free rapid tests to community sites and clinics while also making the tests covered by insurance, a plan that evolved over the last few weeks as omicron spread, said the White House press secretary.
“Home tests are something we should have been doing much more commonly throughout this pandemic, even in the pre-vaccine era, and we still are woefully behind,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease expert at Johns Hopkins University, who called the tests “necessary.”
“For the early stages of this omicron surge, most of us are going to be running around town looking for home tests,” he added, saying the president’s new plan will take time to implement. “If people can know their status, they can take the correct actions to protect themselves and to protect others.”
The administration will also begin standing up new federal testing sites, the first of which will be implemented in New York City this week.
In New York City, nearly 63,500 people tested positive in just five days, the average daily number of infections had climbed to nearly 11,000 as of Monday — an increase of 207% in a week.
Ninety percent of the cases detected in New York state in the last week were the omicron strain.
Biden also announced several measures to help hospitals dealing with an overwhelming number of COVID patients.
He said he will soon direct defense secretary Lloyd Austin to mobilize an additional 1,000 troops to serve overburdened hospitals in the months of January and February. The troops will include military doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other medical personnel.
And he pointed to the national stockpile that includes millions of gloves, gowns, mask and ventilators.
Plus, the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA) will activate its National Response Coordination Center, Biden said, in order to mobilize teams that will help states plan for hospitals' needs, set up more hospital beds, coordinate medical surge facilities and provide ambulances and emergency teams to move patients if needed.
Biden on Tuesday also pointed to his previous actions to fight the virus's spread, incuding federal vaccine requirements for health care workers, large companies and federal contractors, though they've been so far blocked in court.
He admitted they were not well-liked but said they could be life-saving.
"I know vaccination requirements are not popular," Biden said. "My administration has put them in place not to control your life but to save your life and the lives of others."
The president will also order an additional 100 clinical personnel to be immediately dispatched to Michigan, Indiana, Wisconsin, Arizona, New Hampshire and Vermont, states that have experienced surging cases and whose hospitals are struggling due, in part, to the omicron variant.
The renewed effort to fight the pandemic will also include increasing the amount of pop-up and mobile vaccination clinics across the country, with at least one mobile unit in Washington and four across New Mexico.
Senior administration officials also noted that the government will not track the results of the free 500 million tests, should they be used, instead encouraging Americans who test positive to “consult with your doctor and local public health department.”
As the president announced his new plan and urged vaccinations and boosters as safeguards against omicron, the surge in cases during the holidays could be a major setback for an administration that has touted evidence of economic recovery in recent months and for a president who had predicted Christmas could be the end of the pandemic.
“I believe we'll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year,” Biden said from a Pfizer manufacturing facility in mid-February. “And God willing, this Christmas will be different than the last. But I can't make that commitment to you.”
Tuesday's announcements build on the president's less aggressive winter plan to fight omicron that he laid out in early December, which included an increase in booster vaccination sites, a messaging campaign, the launch of family vaccination sites, an increase in “rapid response” teams for hard-hit communities and a plan to make rapid tests covered by insurance in 2022.