Biden urges Americans to get vaccinated, promises no return to 'darkest days' of pandemic

IN a sober Christmas address to the American people, President Joe Biden repeatedly urged the unvaccinated to get a shot, promised there would be no return to the darkest days of the pandemic, and left open the possibility of another stimulus bill.

He also unveiled several concrete measures designed to limit the fallout of the Omicron variant, the most contagious strain of Covid-19 the world has seen thus far in the pandemic.

"I promised you when I got elected, I'd always give it to you straight from the shoulder," said Biden, before telling the unvaccinated that they were endangering their loved ones, and that it was their patriotic duty to get a shot.

The measures that Biden promised included an increase in the number of federally funded vaccination and testing sites; the provision of 500 million new rapid Covid tests that Americans would be able to order online and have delivered to their homes; the dispatch of 1,000 military doctors, nurses and medics to support stressed hospitals nationwide; and the construction of temporary FEMA-run annexes at hospitals in danger of being overrun.

Taking questions from the press after his speech, Biden denied that the measures had come too late, even as New York City and other areas see daily case counts hit record highs.

Epidemiologists had long advocated increasing rapid testing capacity as a way to preempt regional outbreaks. But nobody had seen a variant coming that would repeatedly double case counts overnight, as appears to be happening with the Omicron variant in the US, Biden noted.

It was only on Nov 22 that South African scientists first identified the variant. But initial reports suggest that Omicron is up to 70 times more contagious than other strains, even if it's less deadly.

Omicron's emergence as the dominant strain in many countries at opposite ends of the earth, including the US and the United Kingdom, in a matter of weeks, is further evidence of this propensity to spread.

Biden said scientists advising him, including the nation's foremost infectious-disease expert Anthony Fauci, had assured him that vaccines, and "especially a booster", or third dose of vaccine, would protect people from serious illness and hospitalisation. Nevertheless, he warned, many vaccinated people would test positive for Covid in the coming weeks, and some of those people would get ill.

"Among the vaccinated there will be Covid in every office, even here in the White House," said Biden.

As for the unvaccinated, Biden said hospitalisation and death were a growing risk. Still, he said, there was no reason to expect a return to March 2020 when the world was paralysed by the threat of Covid-19.

The US is much better prepared for the latest wave of infections, with stockpiles of medicine and personal-protective equipment such as masks and ventilators, the president said. Biden encouraged people to keep their holiday plans in place, while masking inside and taking other basic precautions.

One epidemiological theory is that the wildfire nature of Omicron will cause it to burn through all available fuel with great alacrity. There are even signs that case counts are nearing a peak in South Africa, less than a month after the surge began.

Biden hinted at this prospect, but also acknowledged that nobody knew what direction the pandemic would take next.

"I know you're tired; I know you're frustrated; we all want this to be over...but we're still in it," said Biden, adding that he was confident that the nation would persevere. "There's no challenge too big for America."

When a reporter asked about Senator Joe Manchin's recent threat to torpedo the administration's US$2 trillion Build Back Better legislation, Biden launched an emotive defence of the spending programme.

He sketched a Dickensian portrait of a family unable to pay for diabetes treatments for a child without the bill's prescription-drug reforms, arguing that passing the bill was a moral imperative.

You "strip away all the dignity" from a family when basic care becomes unaffordable, Biden said. "I'm not joking."

Ever the conciliator, Biden refused to end on a bitter note that might have left Manchin looking like Ebeneezer Scrooge. He pointedly left the door open for further negotiation on the budget bill.

"Senator Manchin and I are going to get something done," he said.