Ahead of President Joe Biden’s speech today on the ongoing surge of COVID-19 infections, the White House released a fact sheet of new measures to “Protect Americans and Help Communities and Hospitals Battle Omicron” that includes free at-home tests, FEMA-run vaccination sites and deploying military members to hospitals:
In addition to scaling up rapid testing access, FEMA will be bringing back vaccine sites (pop up sites in different locations). https://t.co/DLDDSQsROz
— Jen Kates (@jenkatesdc) December 21, 2021
The 500 million free at-home rapid tests is probably the biggest news here as this was something the White House argued wasn’t necessary in early December:
LATEST: Pres. Biden to announce a plan to distribute 500 million free at-home rapid tests to Americans beginning in January. https://t.co/FFBpJ9DZpM pic.twitter.com/qgQway4Bnm
— ABC News (@ABC) December 21, 2021
Flashback: Remember when press secretary Jen Psaki got snarky when a journo asked why the government didn’t just mail tests to everyone? We do:
.@JReinerMD: "Two weeks ago, Jen Psaki was asked at a press conference about getting more tests to the public & she very dismissively suggested in a sarcastic tone oh, do you think we should mail these tests out to everyone? Yes, that's exactly what I think you should do." pic.twitter.com/G6Kxond7XT
— Caroline Kenny (@carolinerkenny) December 18, 2021
The old Biden plan was to make the tests free, but Americans had to then get reimbursed by the insurance companies after buying them at a pharmacy:
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FFS. Only Dems could make the distribution of free tests so complicated. https://t.co/Py84u7bOxK
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) December 3, 2021
And it was inevitable this was going to happen anyway, so why the huge delay?
eventually, they'll just give the tests away, right? why not just go to that point right now
(It's like FEMA cash cards after a disaster. yes, some will get used for non-emergency stuff but there is no way to get $ out fast and put curbs on what they're used for)
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) December 10, 2021
We should have had these tests months ago, but, alas. Biden failed us:
The Omicron outbreak is Joe Biden's fault. At-home tests should have been available months ago.https://t.co/x3HVSscl9D pic.twitter.com/KtPjcdLlbl
— Greg Pollowitz (@GPollowitz) December 21, 2021
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