‘We’re still at it’: Biden’s Covid speech acknowledges battle fatigue but seeks to rally troops | Joe Biden

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The white gingerbread house covered in pristine ice and decorated with small wreaths, surrounded by a small fire, gas and police stations, a grocery store, a post office, a warehouse and a school, with a yellow bus.

Produced by White House pastry chefs, this double vision of a virus-free world set an incongruous backdrop on Tuesday as Joe Biden walked into the state dining room to deliver something akin to a wartime speech.

Melancholy, fear and fatigue haunt the earth once again. The Omicron variant has caused coronavirus cases to spread across the United States, leading to a new round of business shutdowns.

A long line of people gathers around a test site two blocks from the White House. It is a déjà vu of death and despair.

It is also causing trouble for a president who, out of compassion and competence, ran out of mercy and efficiency and promised to beat the virus, alongside Donald Trump. By the end of the year, Covid-19 was rising again while Biden’s legislative agenda dipped and his rating was in the doldrums. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.

The president, who spoke in his January inaugural address of a “winter full of dangers and possibilities,” finds himself in another winter where danger appears to have the upper hand. He is also aware that right-wing critics are keen to portray him as pro-close, pro-delegation, and joy-killing Ebenezer Scrooge.

But the last thing Biden wanted to conjure up on Tuesday was the bleak ghost of Christmas past. Behind him are two cheerful Christmas trees decorated with pictures of family and snowmen. Wrap a red ribbon over the heater. To his left was the perfect display of gingerbread and a wreath hanging over a mirror.

Biden started with his sympathy card. “I want to start by acknowledging how tired, anxious and frustrated you feel. I know how you feel. For many of you, this will be your first Christmas or even your second Christmas as you look at it – across the table there will be an empty kitchen chair.”

But then came Churchill’s plea to the stiff upper lip: “While Covid has been a tough opponent, we have shown that we are tougher – stronger because we have the power of science and vaccines that prevent disease and save lives, and tougher because we are of our own design.”

He warned that non-vaccinators have good cause for concern, but that vaccinators should celebrate Christmas as planned. Yes, they can catch Covid “in large numbers” but they are protected from severe illness and death, he said.

Biden announced that half a billion at-home tests will soon be available to Americans to order online for free, an embarrassing development for press secretary Jen Psaki, who earlier this month appeared to be shrugging off the idea. Psaki had to eat a humble pie at Tuesday’s press conference.

But the pandemic has always been political and Omicron threatens to pour more fuel on those flames. David Leonhart, a senior writer for the New York Times, notes that partisanship is the biggest factor in determining vaccination rates.

“If democratic voters formed their country, it would be one of the most vaccinated countries in the world, with more than 91 percent of adults having received at least one shot,” Leonhardt wrote. Only about 60 percent of Republican adults did. This vaccination gap created a huge gap in mortality rates, which grew sharply during the second half of the year.”

It is a terrifying omen for a president who, in this inaugural address, pledged to heal wounds and unite the nation. “Non-vaccinators are responsible for their choices,” he said on Tuesday. But these choices were prompted by dangerous misinformation on cable channels and social media.

“You know, these companies and personalities make money by promoting lies and allowing misinformation that can kill their customers and their supporters. It’s wrong, it’s unethical. I call on the providers of these lies and misinformation to stop it. Stop it now.”

In addition, Biden issued a rare cry to the “previous administration” for the rapid development of vaccines with the scientific community.

Biden ended another rallying cry: “I know you’re tired and I know you’re frustrated. We all want this to end. But we’re still in it, and this is a critical moment…we’re ready. We’re going to get through this.”

Unlike Barack Obama, Biden does not appear to be holding a press conference at the end of the year, but he did receive a few questions from reporters. Many naturally focused on Joe Manchin, the senator from West Virginia who has brazenly declared that he would not support Biden’s legislation to build better after all.

It was a devastating blow to an old senator who campaigned on his ability to cut deals. But Biden, who is of Irish descent, quipped, “Some people think I’m probably not Irish because I don’t hold a grudge. Look, I want to get things done. I still think there’s potential to do Build Back better.”

“Senator Manchin and I are going to get something done,” he added.

In the world of romantic comedies and festive movies, Trump and Manchin would have been nodding down the chimney, agreeing to leave things out of date, and saying in chorus with Biden: “Happy birthday to all of us. God bless us, every one.” !”

It is, after all, a time of miracles, and Biden may need one or two.

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