Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor on Sunday contradicted the vice president, who had claimed that no one saw the Omicron variant coming.
‘We did. We definitely saw variants coming,’ said Dr Anthony Fauci, after being read out Kamala Harris’s quote.
On Friday she told The Los Angeles Times: ‘We didn’t see Delta coming. I think most scientists did not — upon whose advice and direction we have relied — didn’t see Delta coming.
‘We didn’t see Omicron coming. And that’s the nature of what this, this awful virus has been, which as it turns out, has mutations and variants.’
Fauci said that Harris was mistaken – but he accepted that Omicron’s potency had not been forecast.
Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday contradicted Vice President Kamala Harris, who had claimed that the administration ‘didn’t see Omicron coming’
Kamala Harris is seen on Friday speaking to The Los Angeles Times in her Washington DC office
Harris denied that the administration had been complacent about the end of the pandemic
‘What was not anticipated was the extent of the mutations and the amino acid substitutions in Omicron, that is really is unprecedented and came out of nowhere,’ Fauci told CNN’s Jake Tapper, on State of the Union.
‘When you have a virus which has 50 mutations.
‘To me that is really quite unprecedented so that is something you would not have anticipated.
‘But we certainly were anticipating that there were going to be variants. Because when you have so much replication going on in the community, if you give a virus enough opportunity to replicate you know it’s going to ultimately mutate.
‘And sometimes those mutations become a new variant, and that’s what happened with Delta, and certainly with Omicron.’
Fauci said the COVID-19 virus was ‘very unpredictable’.
Asked about Biden’s prediction a year ago that Christmas 2021 would be ‘almost normal’, Fauci said: ‘It’s understandable how one could say, hope, aspirationally, that we would be at a different place.’
He stressed the need to get vaccinated and boosted – ‘particularly in the situation we are now in, with Omicron.’
Confirmed cases of Omicron reached 830 as of Saturday morning – a 50 per cent increase from Friday – and has been detected in nearly every state.
Kentucky, Arkansas, Maine, Kansas and Wyoming confirmed new Omicron cases, bringing the total to 45 states.
Fauci said that there needed to be more at-home testing.
‘We are going to see a significant stress, in some regions, of the hospital system,’ he said.
‘This virus is extraordinary. It has a doubling time of anywhere from two to three days.’
He said Omicron ‘is going to take over’ and that ‘we are going to be in for some significant difficulties’.
Fauci added: ‘It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be a tough few weeks and months, as we head more into the winter.’
But, he said he thought schools could stay open.
‘Right now we can keep the children in schools safely. What the CDC came out a few days ago was the Test to Stay system, and it does work,’ he said.
‘We are trying as best we can to keep the schools open.
‘I believe that even with the stress of what we are feeling now, we can keep the schools open.’
He said they were ‘trying to get a veil of protection over the country’, and that vaccination was ‘an absolutely essential part of the process’ – but masking and testing was also vital.
‘Testing is absolutely essential,’ he said. ‘Particularly the point of care, where you can do testing yourself and get a result in 15 minutes.
‘It’s more than one thing. It’s a comprehensive approach.’
On Monday, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, mocked the idea of at-home tests being distributed for free – as is the case in multiple other countries.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was widely panned on Twitter after mocking the notion of sending every American at-home COVID tests for free
Asked why the U.S. was not doing the same, Psaki replied: ‘Should we just send one to every American?’
‘Maybe,’ the reporter replied, before again trying to point out the example of other countries, only to be cut off by Psaki.
‘Then what happens if every American has one test? How much does that cost, and then what happens after that?’ Psaki asked.
The testy briefing room back-and-forth quickly caught the attention of doctors and public health experts, who wasted no time raking Psaki over the coals for what one commenter described as her ‘terrible, flippant, wrong’ response.
‘Actually stunned by this response by the @PressSec @WHCOVIDResponse @WhiteHouse,’ tweeted Rick Bright, CEO of the Rockefeller Foundation.
‘We should remove all access barriers to rapid tests.
‘They’re too expensive, in short supply & adding extra insurance barriers isn’t the answer. Yes, mail them to all Americans.’
Gregg Gonzalves, a Yale University researcher did not mince words, writing in a tweet: ‘this answer was terrible, flippant, wrong.
‘Rapid tests are hard to get, expensive & could be a key intervention in fighting #COVID19.
‘Other countries have figured out better ways to get these tools into the hands of their citizens. Do better.’
Dr Tatiana Powell, an oncologist, argued that nearly two years into the pandemic, at-home tests should be free and available to everyone.
‘If we run out when we send one to every [home], we’re doing something very wrong,’ she tweeted.
Dr Craig Spencer, Director of Global Health in Emergency Medicine at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center, pointed out that the US government has already spent billions of dollars of vaccines, so ‘tests should be no different.’
Psaki boasted that the eight at-home tests that have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration were ‘the gold standard.’
She suggested that other countries, by making the kits free and easily accessible, possibly fall short of that standard.
She then touted the expansion of at-home testing, saying that thanks to the Biden administration’s reimbursement plan, 150 million Americans will get access to free tests.
But reporters were unconvinced, claiming that the plan was ‘too complicated,’ and asking why the government would not simply give out the tests free of charge to everyone.
Four days after Psaki’s Monday exchange, Harris’s claims about failing to foresee Omicron and Delta immediately raised eyebrows.
The mutations and variants have been long known as a feature of coronaviruses.
By the time Harris and Biden took over, in January 2021, the WHO had already identified three ‘variants of concern’ – Alpha, Beta and Gamma.
Two more – Delta and Omicron – emerged in the Biden-Harris era.
The beleaguered vice president spoke to the media outlets as the Omicron variant spreads nationwide, with 45 states and Puerto Rico now having detected cases as of Saturday morning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The number of confirmed Omicron cases in the US has nearly doubled in a period of 24 hours, with the variant now confirmed in all but six states.
Omicron was first discovered last month in South Africa but is now taking hold in the US, as well.
As of Saturday morning, there were 830 cases of Omicron confirmed by DNA sequencing across the country – a 97 per cent increase from Friday morning’s tally.
In reality, the true number of Omicron cases is much higher, as only 1 to 2 per cent of all cases are sequenced for variant markers.
The CDC estimates that Omicron accounts for at least 13 percent of all new cases in New York, which on Friday recorded its highest single-day tally of new Covid-19 cases ever at 21,027.
The Big Apple has been particularly hard-hit, again, with the number of cases doubling in three days.
Earlier this week, Governor Kathy Hochul reinstated controversial mask mandates for most indoor venues.
The rise in cases in the past three days caused Dr Jay Varma, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s top medical advisor, to tweet ‘we’ve never seen this before in New York City.’
Testing has now confirmed the presence of Omicron in every US state except for Oklahoma, Montana, North and South Dakota, Indiana, and Vermont, though the eventual arrival of the highly transmissible variant in every state seems assured.
Highly vaccinated states in the Northeast seem to be struggling the most at the moment as cold weather, waning immunity and the new variant all contribute to a new case surge.
Biden on July 4 celebrated ‘independence’ from the virus, in a positive speech which some have now said was misguided.
‘While the virus hasn’t been vanquished, we know this: It no longer controls our lives,’ the president said.
‘It no longer paralyzes our nation. And it’s within our power to make sure it never does again.’
Harris said one of her biggest regrets is that she had not been able to do more to combat myths about the virus and vaccine.
‘I would take that more seriously,’ she said of the misinformation.
‘The biggest threat still to the American people is the threat to the unvaccinated.
‘And most people who believe in the efficacy of the vaccine and the seriousness of the virus have been vaccinated. That troubles me deeply.’
Harris told the paper she understood the frustration many felt at still being faced with a surge in COVID, despite there now being a vaccine and booster available.
She said she appreciated that many were angry at having to cancel Christmas plans once again, and was well aware of the toll that uncertainty and anxiety took on mental health.
‘I get it. I get it. I totally get it,’ she said.
‘I mean, you know, one of the concerns that I have is the undiagnosed and untreated trauma at various degrees that everyone has experienced.’
The vice president was highly tipped to be the Democrat nominee in 2024 before she took office, and has failed to impress.
Less than half of Americans approve of the job she is doing.
A new Hill/HarrisX poll released on Tuesday shows 43 percent of registered voters approve of Harris’s performance, while 50 per cent say they disapprove.
The same poll taken December 6-7 shows 7 percent of respondents are unsure of their approval of the vice president.
Harris would not say whether she felt that her gender and race were a factor in her low approval ratings.
‘I’ll leave that to other people to evaluate,’ she said.