Thursday: It Was The Best of Times, And The Worst of Times For Biden's COVID Policies
“Please wear a mask. I think it's part of your patriotic duty," the president says
Talk about an up-and-down day.
Thursday brought with it the spark of new policies and innovation to fight the seemingly inexorable COVID-19 pandemic.
But it also brought a terrible setback from the Supreme Court.
And it all played out against a backdrop of the worst number of reported COVID cases since the pandemic began more than two years ago now: nearly 900,000 such cases across the country.
President Biden announced that his administration will purchase an additional 500 million COVID-19 at-home tests, bringing the total number of tests that will be distributed for free to 1 billion.
With cases going through the roof, demand for tests is — and should remain — quite high.
Secondly, Biden said that his administration next week will announce a plan to make high-quality, N95 masks available to Americans for free.
“We're on track to roll out a website next week where you can order free tests shipped to your home,” Biden said.
Biden acknowledged that wearing a mask is a “pain in the neck” but says wearing a well-fitted mask is an important tool to stop the spread of omicron. “Please wear a mask. I think it's part of your patriotic duty.”
He concluded his remarks by making an appeal to social media websites to continue monitoring “misinformation and disinformation.”
Such misinformation — and downright disinformation — has played a pernicious role for months in keeping many Americans, especially on the political right, from accepting the vaccines.
“I make a special appeal to the social media companies and media outlets; please deal with the misinformation and disinformation that's on your shows. It has to stop. COVID-19 is one of the most formidable enemies America has ever faced,” the president said.
On the other hand, the Supreme Court struck down the centerpiece of Biden's vaccine mandate: a rule from the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) which would have forced employers with more than 100 employees to either ensure that their employees are vaccinated, or test negative for COVID on a regular basis.
The high court struck that down 6-3, with the full conservative supermajority lining up against it.
“Although Congress has indisputably given OSHA the power to regulate occupational dangers, it has not given that agency the power to regulate public health more broadly,” the court’s six conservative justices declared in an unsigned joint opinion. “Requiring the vaccination of 84 million Americans, selected simply because they work for employers with more than 100 employees, certainly falls in the latter category.”
The New Republic gave its article on the ruling this headline: “In a 6–3 Ruling, the Supreme Court Upholds the Covid Pandemic.”
“The Supreme Court’s decision on the OSHA mandate essentially means that in the pan- — in this pandemic, it is up to individual employers to determine whether their workplaces will be safe for employees and whether their businesses will be safe for consumers,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday. “So, President Biden — and you’ll see this in his statement — will be calling on and will continue to call on businesses to immediately join those who have already stepped up, including one third of Fortune 100 companies, to institute vaccination requirements to protect their workers, customers, and communities.
“We have to keep working together in order to get this done to save more lives,” Psaki added.
Furthermore, 57 percent, according to a Navigator poll, of Americans support vaccine requirements, Psaki said. According to a survey of 534 U.S. employers, a majority — 57 percent of respondents — have or will require their employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19, she added.
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