The Biden Administration announced Tuesday it would distribute N-95 masks nationwide.
Summary
The Biden Administration announced Tuesday it would distribute N-95 masks nationwide as it rolls out free at-home COVID-19 tests for all Americans.
- Over 400 million N95 masks will be distributed to pharmacies and community health centers.
- Also Tuesday, the Biden Administration rolled out its website that lets Americans order four at-home COVID-19 tests. The free tests will be sent via the Postal Service.
- CovidTests.gov has largely avoided the issues that plagued to the disastrous rollout of HealthCare.gov nearly nine years ago, although some apartment residents received error messages when ordering tests.
- The first 20 percent of orders will go to “people in vulnerable ZIP codes” – it is unclear how the White House will make this determination. Arbitrary bureaucratization of the ordering process is virtually guaranteed to slow down testing orders for everyone.
- The White House promised tests would ship within 7-12 days and made no distinction between “areas facing disproportionate COVID-19 cases and deaths” and the rest of the country.
- Politico took a look at how the Omicron variant has affected the agenda of new mayors across the country like Michelle Wu in Boston and Andre Dickens in Atlanta.
- The Washington Post reports that the World Health Organization has declared there is “no evidence right now” that children and young adults without preexisting conditions require booster shots.
- CNN reports that the Postal Service claims it is ready to deliver 500 million tests even with labor force problems that could delay testing deliveries.
- Fox News writes that Biden’s promises to shut down the virus and fix testing delays have both fallen flat after one year on the job.
- National Review called for the firing of Dr. Anthony Fauci and a reset of America’s COVID-19 response strategies.
- The Washington Examiner reported on the coming “showdown” between the Biden Administration and Republican governors over school masking policies.
Author’s Take
Today, the New York Times’ influential morning newsletter declared “Omicron is in retreat.” Also today, after nearly a year in office and two waves of variants – Delta and Omicron- that have killed thousands, the Biden team announced their free testing and masking plan. If they could do this all along, why did they wait? And why did Jen Psaki and top White House officials scoff at both plans as recently as a few weeks ago?
The Biden Administration has made some big promises this week. 500 million tests delivered within 7-12 days and 400 million N-95 masks distributed by next week. Given their performance so far if they pull this off it would be a remarkable achievement, grading on a curve.
The trust the Biden Administration puts in USPS is a marked contrast from the Biden campaign’s attacks on USPS during the 2020 election. Recall in August 2020 USPS couldn’t guarantee on-time delivery of 50 million mail-in ballots. This sparked hysteria among college-educated progressives including one Democratic member of Congress who chained himself to a mailbox. Somehow I doubt delays in testing deliveries will be met with the same response.
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© Dominic Moore, 2022
