Biden’s Claims About Omicron Transmission and South Africa Are Demonstrably False – Opinion

Joe Biden gave a speech Tuesday, announcing a major expansion in federal government involvement in COVID-19 testing and more, but took the opportunity to both scold those who spread what he calls “fake news” and spread a bit of fake news himself.

Addressing a question about what he would say to Americans who are trying to get tested now and who are not able to get tested and who are wondering what took so long to ramp up testing, Biden first hit back:

Don’t be so slow. It took me so long.

He then went back to his usual standby, denying that anything had happened. We are already testing too many patients with signs and symptoms, so the increase in testing capacity seems unnecessary. Here is Biden’s take:

Well, what took so long is, it didn’t take long at all. The Omicron virus spread faster than anyone thought. If I told you four weeks ago that this would spread by – on a day-to-day basis that it would spread by 50, 100 percent, 200 percent, 500 percent, I think you would have looked at me and said, “Biden, what are you drinking?” But that’s what it did.

Leaving aside the fact that we often wonder what Biden is drinking, his contentions on how transmissible Omicron is and how quickly it’s spread throughout the United States are a little nuts. While we all know Omicron is more easily transmitted than any other variants, according to the latest CDC data Omicron cases have increased sixfold over the past week. They now account for 73 per cent of COVID-19 case in the United States.

However, the total number of COVID-19 cases in the country rose only 1.5 percent week-over-week, according to the CDC’s Weekly Tracker, so

According to Biden, there’s only “some evidence” out of South Africa that “it” is dropping off quickly. What the “it” is that Biden’s referring to, though, isn’t clear.

Now, we don’t know what’s gonna happen from here. There’s some evidence that in South Africa, where a lot of this started, that it’s dropping off quickly too. We don’t know.

However, we know for certain that South Africa is experiencing a dramatic drop in the number of new COVID-19 case. The vast majority are Omicron.

South Africa is seeing a decline in optimism. Gauteng cases collapsing. Other provinces peaking or starting to decline – including KwaZulu Natal showing week-over-week decline (5,205 on Dec 14 and 4,009 today). https://t.co/EVEUWqpm9o pic.twitter.com/48Tq5tUPb2

— Aaron Astor (@AstorAaron) December 21, 2021

And, as RedState’s Scott Hounsell has been noting for nearly a month, according to data from South Africa and compared with data from other countries, Omicron has not shown to be more deadly than other variants even among the unvaccinated. So, yes, Mr. Biden, we do know what is happening in South Africa, and we’ll undoubtedly see the same pattern here.